The Scarlet Goodbye - El Camino Adios (2025)

This showcase, according to its press, is a collaborative effort produced by Minnesota musicians Jeff Arundel (acoustic guitar/organ/vocal) with additional production by Daniel Murphy (ex-Soul Asylum & Golden Smog on electric guitar/vocal). The vocals on the opening tune “To Feel the Sun” are sung vigorously in unison to good effect.

The 10 tunes that are shaped for El Camino Adios have a varied attraction. “The Last Time” has guitar contours balanced on a steady thudding drum beat & more unison vocals which create a single voice at times that’s dramatic.

However, when Murphy & Arundel sing their individual lines the sound instead of being progressive like Tony Carey’s Planet P (“Pink World” LP) sounds closer to the harmonic blend of Lowen & Navarro (“Cry”). So, what do we have here? Progressive rock-folk?

The set’s theme is a mythical town where the musicians capture the essence of everyday comings & goings, daily challenges, reminisces, through a folky organic yet epic soundscape. Some songs will nod to a more nostalgic presentation with an atmospheric mainstream rock flair. To hippie ears, The Grass Roots’ early ‘70s hit “Temptation Eyes,” is covered & it’s soulfully reflective & fits. In this arrangement, the song doesn’t seethe with pop ambition but sounds tighter & more precise as a song. Isn’t music a wonderful thing? It’s like a phantom.

Some selections may have stayed in the womb too long. They’re heavily developed into a commercialized-mainstream pop vein although performed with excellence. With a beautiful chorale (“Raylene”), it is impressive, but will this climb today’s charts? I can give this a passing grade for sound & effort, but the probability of chart success is questionable.

Then a slide into a more Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young vocal idiom with the fairly good Euro-melody “Sad Burlesque” played impressively with accordion & guitar. In lesser hands this would be laughable, but Murphy & Arundel make it sound superior to most late career CSN&Y. “Three On a Match” is an instrumental but probably the highlight of the album. Hauntingly beautiful. Followed by the catchy “Great Again” that begins to take shape into a more original sound. The Euro-melodic tease is evident again, but this is almost imaginatively Beatlesque. This is a good pairing.