I have a lot of respect for this music but the highest I could go is just solid. In my opinion Fred Frith is the weaker musician here when compared to Tom Cora. The texturing from the cello takes something mediocre and makes it good. Conceptually, this band was on an important track and from a different angle but at around the same time Shockabilly was up to similar experiments. I am comfortable stating that Eugene Chadbourne is a better musician than Fred Frith. Skeleton Crew's Tom Cora went on to play with Shockabilly's Chadbourne on Eugene Chadbourne - LSDC&W - The History Of The Chadbournes In America, an album that I consider a masterpiece. To me, the quirkiness and 'humor' on Skeleton Crew doesn't come off so well but LSDC&W knocks it out of the park. The track It's Fine has a great guitar solo by Frith but then the quirky chorus come in and annoys me. It's like it's trying too hard to be funny. Some of the guitar stylings here do remind me of some stuff I feel very favorably about like for example Ornette's Dancing in Your Head and James Blood Ulmer's Harmoledic Guitar with Strings. To sum up, I really like Tom Cora and the use of strings, I also like a lot Frith's guitar work but the overall quirkiness of the song structures don't completely work with me.
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