ENGLISH CREEK

Scott Sowers’s dry tone and Midwestern drawl help listeners imagine an older Jick McCaskill as he tells the story of his fourteenth summer, during 1939, when his father was senior forest ranger for the Two Medicine National Forest in Montana. Jick’s adventures—from camp tending with the mysterious Stanley Meixell to the excitement of the Fourth of July celebration in nearby Gros Ventre—are all background to his worry about the rift between his parents and his older brother, Alec, who has decided to forgo college in favor of an early marriage. Sowers presents a flawless delivery of Doig’s wry humor and Midwestern philosophy, offering up such worthy phrases as “warbling boozehound” with pitch-perfect ease. K.O. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2010]