Imagine you’re at the end of a Western. One of the gritty ones where you already know that noone will be riding into the sunset. It is sunset, however. And we are in an abandoned, dusty corral. From three cardinal directions, three figures emerge. From the East comes the Drifter, his hair long and eyes wild. With him he carries a small box, the contents of its interior unknown. From the South comes the Cowboy, his trail weary, his journey long. A poet at heart, some have said that to see him move can be equated to the finest lines of verse ever written… though few have lived to say. Finally, from the West comes the Arab, his journeys mysterious, his face wizened. One by one, each member takes his place at their respective coordinates. And one by one, they pay their respects to their absent comrade from the North, his whereabouts disputed, their circle incomplete. A bell rings – they draw their guns and…

Again, perhaps not the most concrete description for an album, but all said, we feel this scene is an apt description for Arabs, Cowboys, Drifters – the second live album brought to you by le Pink Canoes. Recorded at the Climate Theatre in San Francisco, Ca. on December 18th, 2007, this album documents an interesting time in the grand narrative of said ensemble, as it follows the departure of a founding member and a slight paradigm shift as the band worked to redefine its sound from the confines of established non-idioms, removed their vessel from dry-dock and embarked again into uncharted waters. While communication’s been sparse, wayward locals and other lost souls have reported tales of ominous visions of shrouded figures inhabiting a small vessel at the edge of the mist, always shortly before sunset and gone in the blink of an eye. Though confirmation of these sightings have yet to be documented, we once again wish nothing but the best to our adventurers and anxiously await their return from afar.

Listen