Dark Tea - Dark Tea (2019)

New York City based songwriter Gary Canino, submits to you a generous collection of country-inflected music under the Dark Tea moniker that honor the past while looking ahead. There is, as they say, a little something for everyone. With Dark Tea, Gary emerges as a scientist does from her lab, having cracked the formula. The formula? Honor the listeners’ desire for both danger and comfort. And so, when a melody starts to wander from the marked trail, Gary soothes the listener’s ear with a simple one-four (“Variable Reward”). And so, when ambling verse figure disorients the listener, it repeats until she feels at home in it (“The Bird’s Nest”). And so, a long verse finds punctuation in a tasteful punchy chorus (“No Notifications”). The album also contains no fewer than three truly great guitar solos, including one from Meg Duffy’s Hand Habits on “Rollin’ Back The Dial”.