I discovered this group last year when they played small but very attentive house in Philly. I'm slowly buying up some of their recorded stuff and thoroughly enjoying it. This one is an earlier recording with just the trio (they have since added a fantastic reed player in Ben Goldberg).The musicianship alone is worthy of your support. However, it is the ideas and the colors in the music that has kept this stuff in heavy rotation around my house. It is a rare gift when an ensemble can make some of the saddest melodies so rich, full of life and absolutely irresistible.You may first notice that Carla Kihlstedt gets a throaty goodness out of the violin. This is both languid and singing over the muscular guitar of Mark Orton and the brilliance of Rob Reich on piano & accordion. The two pull the trio together with an ever inventive pulse. Some of the tunes are filled out with a small brass section that comes and goes and helps make this a soundtrack for a life lived, loved, lost and found. I'm hooked!