I was very very pleasantly surprised by what greeted me when I spun this disc for the first time. Given what I had heard of De Gennaro (his collaboration with Alastair Galbraith) and LVD (lotsa psych & drone stuff from New Zealand & elsewhere) I was expecting something experimental, something that would fit in my H-Corp collection, and something I wasn't really interested in listening to during the dying days of summer. Instead I was treated to 45 minutes of deep, beautifully layered, and occasionally dark American folk. Each track, save for 'Natura' which ventures into territory considerably more experimental and drone oriented, Humbled Down is a satisfying ramble through the rural backroads of 'New Weird America' or whatever buzzword is being used now. As spirituality is a large part in the lives of country folk, so to is it a part of De Gennaro's compositions. A religiosity arises from his use of source nature recordings, organ drone, or even simple strumming techniques suggest there is more going on here than a calculated series of acoustic indulgences. While the album is entirely instrumental, lyrics of an entirely sacred nature could have been added and would have been entire appropriate. Had this been written 150 years ago it could have been the music of conversion; each performance in each hall bringing a little more light and offering a gentle and persuasive salvation. 8/10 -- Chris Jacques (31 October, 2005)