Chucky Trading Co - A Sky of Hope

​Chucky Trading Co

A Sky of Hope
self-released; 2025

By Matt Jensen

Chucky Trading Co’s A Sky of Hopes feels like it was unearthed from a forgotten reel of 1970s analog tape, dusted off, and quietly updated for a more reflective present. The brother and sister duo of CS Taber and Patricia “Danger” Taber bridge New York and Nashville, but their true spiritual home is somewhere closer to Laurel Canyon. That is where this album seems to live, surrounded by incense smoke, soft light, and a few worn copies of The Prophet. The songs are steeped in the counterculture canon, full of both sincerity and theatricality, and they are not shy about their roots.

The album opens with “High Desert Flowers,” which begins with an actual wolf howl before launching into the line “I was raised by wolves on the northern slopes.” I will admit, it made me laugh a little, but there is something about the delivery that convinced me to stay with it. The arrangement takes itself seriously in the way that a lot of 70s folk rock did, layered guitars, a slow build, and vocals delivered with poetic reverence. It felt like they were fully committed to the world they were building, and that conviction does carry the track.

“Make Your Own Sunshine” is a standout. It leans into a warm, Americana vibe that reminded me of Fleet Foxes, but with less haze and more twang. The banjo and organ provide the right texture, but it is really about the vocal interplay. There is something quietly triumphant about the melody. “Charly’s Alone” goes in a different direction, with dramatic strings and multi layered vocals that felt cinematic and inward looking. It is one of the more emotionally weighty moments on the album.

“Clever Girl” was a welcome shift in tone. It is playful, groovy, and does not take itself quite so seriously. I loved the saxophone here, it added just enough color without overwhelming the arrangement. “Blood Diamond,” on the other hand, swung back into the more theatrical. It felt like a scene from a fantasy novel put to music, with its swelling instrumentation and high stakes storytelling. There is an intensity here that is almost prog adjacent.

“Hero” struck me as Pink Floyd leaning into Led Zeppelin. There is a moody guitar atmosphere and a deliberate pacing that pays off in the chorus. “Happy” shifts gears again, dialing things down into a gentle ballad with layered vocal harmonies that made me think of Simon and Garfunkel. “Saturday Waltz” follows a similar thread, soft, intimate, and unhurried. By the time we reach “White Widow,” the band is ready to kick things back up again with more rock energy, while the title track “A Sky of Hopes” ends the album deep in Floyd territory, swirling effects and all.

The production is a curious mix. The mixing feels modern, clean, balanced, crisp, but the instruments and overall aesthetic could have come straight from a 1971 home studio setup. That contrast worked for me. It gave the album a sense of time travel, like looking at the past through a slightly clearer lens.

A Sky of Hopes does not try to modernize its influences. It leans into them completely. And while there are moments that flirt with nostalgia in an overt way, the sincerity and craft in the songwriting bring it back into focus. If you have a soft spot for the golden era of folk rock, this will feel like a familiar companion. For me, it landed somewhere between past and present, and that in between space is where the album really shines.

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