Curk Kirkwood solo
Curt Kirkwood
Snow
(Little Dog)
When Kurt Cobain invited the Kirkwoods on Nirvana’s “MTV Unplugged” session, 10 years of indie cred bubbled on screen. Where has it gone?
With or without Cobain’s prodding, The Meat Puppets’ ubiquitous “Backwater” single might have still ruled the summer of ’94 airwaves. Major labels had courted the Brothers Meat since at least ’88, and their — mainly Curt’s — Neil Young-ish dexterity between classic rock and folk seemed primed for the charts, if not a feverish cult. Infrequent chart success never translated to broad public acceptance the way it should, and so you get the way-so-important-you-don’t-even-know Kirkwood on an unknown label like Little Dog.
Yet no matter where you fit on the Puppets spectrum — save maybe the first album — Snow does. CSN harmonies (“Beautiful Weapon”) overlap country lilt (title track) and atmos-folk (“Movin’ On”), proving this small-screen debut isn’t for nothing.
— Steve Forstneger
