Victor Krummenacher: Hard to See Trouble Coming
While it’s a little less eclectic than the average Camper Van Beethoven album, Trouble Coming is still full of surprises. Staying on the country/folk side of the street, founding CVB bassist Victor Krummenacher’s weary baritone delves into 10 tales of full of darkness, buoyed here and there by hints of salvation. “An Act of Kindness” is a mid-tempo dirge detailing the end of a relationship, or maybe the end of the world, with icy guitars and crying pedal steel. The gentle Tex-Mex rhythm of “Tennessee & Pancho” explores the trembling delicacy of love with Krummenacher’s gloomy singing and Grady Martin-like acoustic fills adding to the song’s Marty Robbins meets Townes van Zandt aura. There’s some brightness in “If I Could Only Close My Eyes,” but it’s a light that illuminates things that the singer knows he doesn’t really want to see. Producer Bruce Kaphan’s (American Music Club) pedal steel and organ complement the funereal mood.