Caethua

***The mysterious and enchanting CLARE HUBBARD strides slowly out of the forest, guitar in hand ready to make her presence felt, finite and powerful, with Red Moon. While Red Moon can be classified as a folk record, it packs a punch. This is a record that swells as well as it swaggers. Hubbard brings to mind classics such as Karen Dalton and Judee Sill, while managing to even cross the boundaries and bring to mind even PJ Harvey. There’s moments of wonderful dissonance packed between the fuzzy ruckus and burners. Deep droners that Hubbard can chant and moan incantations atop of. In a way, it’s a hard album to exactly define, while it resides under the blanket genre folk. It falls right in line with Bathetic’s musical presence and list of musical weirdos standing out, doing their own thing. Hubbard is a pioneer, stalwart and striding. She’s brought a wonderful rock and roll album to the table, folky and weird and psychedelic. This album will stand head and shoulders above a lot of so-called folk-rockers. Hubbard’s been in this game for a long time now, and she’s spent a lot of time tucked away, perfecting a beautiful record.