At its core Hog-Eyed Man (from a bawdy phrase that will go politely undefined here; suffice it to say it used to show up in sea shanties) comprises Jason Cade, extraordinary fiddler, and Rob McMaken, master of lap dulcimer and mandolin. Both throw in occasional vocals, usually in harmony. They're joined brilliantly on the new album by Paddy "Otis" League's guitar, bouzouki and bodhran and Michael Starkey's banjo to drop some old-country Irish sounds amid the Appalachian.

I have reviewed Hog-Eyed's five previous releases, the most recent of them Kicked up a Devil of a Row (7 October 2023), in this space. Each album has been addressed with exhilaration. If you're interested in what I had to say back then, you can check out it out if you're so inclined.

I will praise Across the Sea -- I have no other choice -- but will do so more succinctly because I fear boring readers with repetition, in other words heaping flattery where it's already been fulsome; worse, struggling to find words that emanate from a non-musician who is trying to convey joy in the absence of the requisite technical vocabulary. At least I am blessed with a functioning ear from a long life listening to old folk music, and I rarely confuse good, bad and indifferent. You don't need a history with oldtime Southern string bands to know where Hog-Eyed Man's music falls on the quality spectrum. You just need a minute or two to get you started.

This time we are blessed with 13 tracks. One is the always welcome title piece, this version of which Cade and McMaken absorbed from their fellow Georgian, the late musician and ethnomusicologist Art Rosenbaum. The other is the popular Irish-American "Polly Put the Kettle On." Most others attest to Hog-Eyed's profound immersion in great but arcane tunes and (to a lesser extent) songs, all otherwise buried in local repertoires, to be fleetingly encountered elsewhere if that. Each is striking, they don't sound at all alike, and none work well as background noise because the melodies demand attention and reverie.

Several even flash charmingly distinctive titles, among them a medley combining the reasonably known "Washington's March" with the (I think) new-to-my-acquaintance "Yell in the Shoats." There is also "Wading the Cheat," which the informative liner notes aptly alert us is "beautiful and strange." They go on to elucidate that "it is one of several tunes referencing the Cheat River" in West Virginia. I for one appreciate knowing that.

Like its predecessors Across the Sea fills air and heart with a rich ensemble ambiance, plus an odd kind of dreamlike quality and a vivid sense of time far gone. This thing, this music once existed all around, the listener reflects, and it would be lost if not for these guys who miraculously bring it back via almost magical resurrection. Listening to the Hog-Eyed Man, I reflect -- once more -- that this is some of the finest music I've ever heard.

[ visit the Hog-Eyed Man website ]