Campo Bravo
Goodbye, Oklahoma
( KEEP Recordings ) 2006

"Someday we'll run away and leave all this leaving behind us."

Mark Matos is the force behind Campo Bravo--led by his weary, sweetly mournful vocals, Campo’s new album, Goodbye, Oklahoma, languidly reveals itself--drifting in a textured haze of acoustic guitar and violin (so evocative, might I add, especially on the beautiful "Magic Carpet".) These songs are a series of country-tinged ballads; slow and always stately, they feel like dusty elegies for crumbling hearts, times gone past and loves left behind. Matos is stripped bare over the course of the album--his voice (and songwriting) is so honest and heartfelt that it is hard not to be mesmerized, especially when combined with the delicate female backing vocals that weave themselves around him. The album closer, "Collision Course" takes a long time to gather steam, but it's well worth the wait, as it is the best song on the album. Matos has a way with words, simple as the lyrics to the song might appear to be-- but his delivery makes them like half plea and half mantra. "On this ancient runway across the stars/you are just a black hole to avoid/and I am just a spaceship low on fuel/heading towards a collision course with you." Combine that with the crashing drums, frantic violin, and crescendoing layers of guitars that come in to meet Matos around 4:11, and Campo Bravo has given us a small epic, unassumingly covering a lot of ground in the span of seven minutes. Fragile, but with roots digging deep and firmly settled, Goodbye, Oklahoma is carefully crafted — and quietly, gently heartbreaking.

s. :: [October 2006]