Man's Clothes" and "Right On Through," he grapples with lyrical visions of death and emerges hopeful of "a new beginning."

Where their debut, Trace, leaned heavily toward country & western stylings and Straightaways toward jagged rock riffing, Wide Swing Tremolo offers a broader and more balanced palette. Its fourteen tracks range easily from the Southern-fried folk rock of "Question" to the pedal steel twang of "Hanging Blue Side" and the hushed strings of "Chanty."

Farrar ends Wide Swing Tremolo with the bittersweet – but by no means ironic – observation that we're all just "living on blind hope." Along with his opening line, it makes a fitting bookend for an album that stretches toward some kind of peace – if not quiet. (RS 798)

NEVA CHONIN