Dan Possumato & Friends: Tunes Inside

Pittsburgh's Dan Possumato has been keeping eclectic company on his latest recording.The title is taken from a French saying that there are tunes inside us all; we just have to let them out. Possumato does this with vim on both melodeon and accordion, favouring a robust, old-time style: like a big, bosomy welcome, his music is open-armed and warm- hearted. On the Québécois Valse du Chef de Gare, it's as if he's sidling alongside the listener, so intimate and untrammelled is his playing. Our only reservations are with the company he keeps. Musicians of unquestionable calibre (Kevin Burke, Cal Scott, Elliot Grasso) jostle for space with a raft of others. The result is that some set pieces, while fiery, struggle for oxygen in the melee. The song choices, as well, are a poor relation of the tighter, fitter tunes. danpossumato.com