Here Comes The Flood: Esther Golton: Unfinished Houses

A mountain dulcimer is deceptive instrument to play. Mastering it takes many, many years, but if the player perseveres the possibilities are endless, especially when applied to folk music. Esther Golton did just so and now she plays it like a fully fledged jazz instrument. She knows her way around the flute very well, too.

Based in Talkeetna, Alaska living in a log cabin she built her self with her partner, she was one of the founders of Whole Wheat Radio, broadcasting concerts over the internet. After doing this for a couple of years she decided that she would like to perform and record again. She had been gigging from 1998 to 2003, selling a live album called Talkeetna Roadhouse Live. She started writing the material for what would become Unfinished Houses, a title inspired by the fact that log cabins are never really finished. Including three cover songs she recorded for s a side-project ot promote artists that had been featured on Whole Wheat Radio.

Esther Colton plays chord progressions that will be tough to duplicate on a non-chromatic instrument. Writing about her every day life she sings about happy memories - sneaking off as a child to ride a horse called Shadu, the need for life "to be filtered" (The Hoedown Philosopher), the sickness of her good friend (Louise) and a pilot that took off never to return (Keli Mahoney). Most of the time Golton is content with her life in a log cabin (Unfinished Houses, All The Room Need). As for the covers songs, she makes them her own with Danny Schmidt's Happy All The Time as the stand out track. Esther Colton proves that you can live anywhere and still be heard, coming up with an album that every house (and cabin) should have.