Steel Fringe

The cool Pacific air wafting off of the Curation crew never ceases, and while their latest signing moves a bit further up the coast from the label’s usual California castaways, Steel Fringe still captures the canyon country quite ably. The Portland outfit, featuring RSTB fave Barry Walker Jr (Rose City Band, Mouth Painter), offers up a pretty perfect debut EP — four songs of cosmic country that wind through the mountains and lay down a cascade of green hues and sumptuous harmonies. Feeling like The Byrds and Burriotos are in their blood, the first single “Klickitat County” served as a nice entry point to what the Fringe are all about, but there are more expansive horizons embedded in their eponymous EP as well. The opener, “In My Head,” adds a bit of twang and ramble. It turns down the layered approach but lets pedal steel and a pump trolley pulse that pushes the song down the tracks, soaking in the sun.

The band caps the set with an ambitiously spaced and stretched closer, letting the 10+ minutes of “Days Gone By” capture the kind of unfurling they clearly revel in on stage. The song dives into the haze, letting the listener circle their sanguine smoke for a little while before the jam hits the fan, a lovely push-pull of psych and country finding its harmonious balance. Gotta feeling this is just the beginning for the Northwest’s newest, filing in nicely alongside fellow PDX pals like Jeffrey Silverstein and Rose City Band.

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