Edible Orchids

Album Review

The Ginger Envelope, made up largely of moonlighting musicians in Athens, GA (percussionist Jason Robira is also in Dark Meat, bassist Stephen Miller also plays with Venice Is Sinking, and pedal steel player Matt Stoessel freelances with many others), is basically a songwriting showcase for bandleader Patrick Carey, whose style is somewhat reminiscent of the Cowboy Junkies and Neil Young's Harvest persona in that it employs country instrumentation (banjo in addition to the pedal steel, and plenty of strummed acoustic guitars) and arrangements (lots of slow shuffles) to support a breathy singer who is both melodic and seemingly exhausted most of the time. Carey works up some energy as the disc goes on, but Edible Orchids is an easy-going effort full of lyrics with detached romantic sentiments, performed in a casual manner.