PAT CONTE

Gravest Hits

2007-10-12

Pat Conte’s bluegrassy Gravest Hits, his first release since 1984, is an obscure collection of lo-fi and home recordings hailing from 1981 through 2005. His guitar and instrumentation skills are higher than his lazy blurry-at-times singing, which does not subtract in anyway from the feel of this record. A fret buzz here and there along with the somewhat comical sudden ending of songs adds to the laid back, sitting around the fire with a guitar, feel. You get the sense Pat plays the songs until he feels it’s done, whether or not the listener agrees. Mr. Conte has a love for all things old and folksy, cemented further when he describes the only new guitar he bought for the record, “I want to jump up & down on it now but sometimes it behaves when I threaten it with heavy shoes on.”--Tim Warren