The main difference between
Sand in My Shoe
and the prior LP by
Kath Bloom
and
Loren Connors
, 1982's
Sing the Children Over
, is that this time around
Bloom
wrote everything, whereas she wrote less than half the material on the former record. Otherwise, it's much the same blend of
's trembling voice and guilelessly emotional folk ditties, the acoustic folk guitar backing accented by
Connors
' odd bent blues-folk notes. It's truly a case of the total being greater than the sum of the parts, as on its own,
's compositions might seem gushingly sentimental, and
' guitar work roving experimentalism in search of meaningful content. Together, those elements form something that's hardly comparable to anything of its era or any other, though it's weird enough to guarantee that it's never going to find anything beyond a cult audience. Both
were combined onto one two-CD reissue by
Chapter Music
in 2008, with the addition of three non-LP bonus tracks from the early '80s. ~ Richie Unterberger