Cool Water Canyon
Far From Home
review = B

-Far From Home- is an ambitious project - a double studio album of twenty original tunes. No problem, Cool Water Canyon is up for the challenge. Aiming high makes sense for the Santa Barbara quintet. They've got a lot of good material. Anyone who's seen CWC in concert knows the band can stretch out and improvise with the best of 'em, but on -Far From Home-, most of the material is presented in four to six minute arrangements emphasizing -songs-, as opposed to -jams-. Well, not entirely. "Within The Walls,' a nearly eleven minute extended improv that takes upbeat, tied-dyed funk on an exploration into deep space, -is- a top notch studio jam. And there's plenty of spirited playing on the shorter stuff too. A few of the standouts: "California," with its country-rock pedal steel, acoustic guitars and rich harmonies; "Good Enough," a honky tonkin' open road rocker; "Let Me In," a melodic ballad with outstanding keyboard work that builds intensity from the first to last note; and "The Score," a mango dripped reggae groove with rock steady rydm and nicely textured vocals. With twenty tracks, it's expected that a couple are not as strong as the rest. But even on the few that miss the mark a little, CWC never gets too -Far From Home-.