ROUTES & BRANCHES 
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
October 19, 2013
Scott Foley

Call it the Art Garfunkel syndrome:  the louder the music, the nicer the artist.  Micah, Shane and Murphy couldn't have been better behaved during the Two Cow Garage visit to R&B last week.  In addition to making a spot-on pitch for community radio during our seasonal membership drive, they signed CDs and a poster to use as premiums.  Oh.  And their music was peerless. 

I've heard that Konrad Wert is another nice guy.  Heck, he recently received an award for his work as an elementary teacher in Florida.  Under the moniker Possessed By Paul James, Wert will release the tremendous There Will Be Nights When I'm Lonely late this month on Hillgrass Bluebilly Records.  I read a book years ago by Dennis Covington called Salvation on Sand Mountain.  It described the curious practice of "snake handling" in the churches of Southern Appalachia.  PPJ walks the knife edge between salvation and damnation, practically speaking in tongues on "40 Days & 40 Nights" and the positively possessed "Soy Muriendo".  Beneath refreshingly spare production, Wert's soul is laid bare on the title track, where he accompanies his unhinged vocals with only a strummed violin and a heavy boot.  Conversely, the more lighthearted "38 Year Old Cocktail Waitress" allows PPJ the full band treatment, including the ubiquitous Lloyd Maines on pedal steel.  Like the snake handlers, there is a recklessness to the songs on There Will Be Nights, in clear sight of both damnation and salvation, but fully alive. 

*  Hillstomp, "Cardiac Arrest in D"  Darker the Night  (Fuzzmonster, 10)
*  Builders & the Butchers, "Dirt in the Ground"  Western Medicine  (Barman, 13)
*  T Hardy Morris, "High Cotton"  High Cotton: Tribute to Alabama  (Lightning Rod, 13)
^  Possessed By Paul James, "Hurricane"  There Will Be Nights When I'm Lonely  (Hillgrass Bluebilly, 13)
*  Deep Dark Woods, "Red Red Rose"  Jubilee  (Sugar Hill, 13)
*  Arliss Nancy, "Coal"  Wild American Runners  (Black Numbers, 13)  C
*  Steve Earle & Supersuckers, "Creepy Jackalope Eye"  Steve Earle & Supersuckers  (Sub Pop, 97)
*  JD Wilkes & Dirt Daubers, "River Song"  Wild Moon  (Plowboy, 13)
*  Tim Easton, "Troubled Times"  Not Cool  (Campire Propaganda, 13)
*  Doug C & Blacklisted, "Not Too Broke For Love"  single  (Self, 13)  D
*  Seasick Steve, "Home"  Hubcap Music  (Third Man, 13)  D
*  Richmond Fontaine, "Moving Back Home #2"  Thirteen Cities  (El Cortez, 07)
*  Shonna Tucker & Eye Candy, "Family Dinner"  Tell All  (Sweet Nectar, 13)
*  Katharine Cole, "Just Some Girl"  There Is No God  (Self, 13)  D
*  Britton Deuel, "Living My Way"  Sky Between the Pines  (Self, 13)  C
*  Phil Lee, "I Like Everything"  Fall & Further Decline of the Mighty King of Love  (Palookaville, 13)
*  Shovels & Rope, "Fall of Charleston"  Divided & United: Songs of the Civil War  (ATO, 13)  D
*  Lincoln Durham, "Beautifully Sewn Violently Torn"  Exodus of the Deemed Unrighteous  (Droog, 13)
*  Bonnie Whitmore, "Cryin' Out For Me"  There I Go Again  (This is American Music, 13)