ROUTES & BRANCHES  
a home for the americana diaspora
September 17, 2016
Scott Foley

Here's the question:  Does every band need to "mature"?  If last year's album sounds just like this year's album, do we accuse the band of spinning its wheels?  Conversely, is that band selling out if their approach changes noticeably from one record to the next?

Drive-by Truckers tore out of Athens (by way of AL) in the latter days of the 20th Century, purveyors of gloriously unpolished gems like "Living Bubba" and "Nine Bullets".  2002's Southern Rock Opera earned widespread accolades if for no other reason than for having the balls to release a double album song cycle in praise of Lynyrd Skynyrd.  What's followed from Dirty South and Brighter Than Creation's Dark and 2014's English Oceans has traced Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley through lineup changes, cleaner sounds and a deeper mythology, shedding Jason Isbell, John Neff, Shonna Tucker and others in their wake.  But the output's been admirably consistent, establishing the band as among the best American bands of the aughts.  One of the heartier branches of the Routes & Branches musical shrubbery.

We're used to enjoying a new Wes Freed illustration with every Drive-by Truckers release.  The band's 11th record instead bears the striking image of a U.S. flag at half mast.  American Band could be called their "state of the union" album, stepping back to take stock of all that's led to the lowering of Stars & Stripes depicted on the cover.  Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley talk borders and guns, war on culture and on populations, individuals caught in the crosshairs and a country gone awry.  Both have shown themselves to be smart writers since the start, but "What It Means" and "Surrender Under Protest" feature some of their most direct and effective social commentary to date.  While there are moments of anger and accusation on American Band, the pervading spirit is one of observation and concern.  Overall, it's a tighter, more deliberate collection than listeners might expect.

Songs like "Ramon Casiano" are also quick to establish a driving and tuneful guitar groove, the true story of two radically different lives converging at the point of injustice.  "Killing's been the bullet's business / Since back in 1931 / Someone killed Ramon Casiano / And Ramon's still not dead enough".  "What It Means" lopes along on an unexpectedly restrained acoustic strum that builds over nearly 7 minutes.  Patterson Hood assumes the prophet's role, naming names and raising questions, but the response is ours to decide. "We're living in an age / Where limitations are forgotten / The outer edges move and dazzle us / But the core is something rotten".   "Guns of Umpqua" juxtaposes the gorgeous Oregon Cascades with the senseless Roseburg school shooting.

"We're all standing in the shadows of our noblest intentions of something more / Than being shot in a classroom in Oregon / It's a morning like so many others with breakfast and birthdays / The sun burned the fog away, the breeze blew the mist away / My friend Jack is having a baby / And I see birds soaring through the clouds outside my window / Heaven's calling my name from the hallway outside the door".  

Elsewhere, Mike Cooley unleashes "Filthy and Fried", a rambling rocker that juggles scattershot stream-of-consciousness phrases and immediately stands among his best.  "The old man's world was more doing than thinking and the doing was more cut and dried / Now girls collect trophies as much as the boys and come home just as filthy and fried".  

While American Band finds the outfit widening its perspective to encompass goings on in Oregon, St Louis, Florida and elsewhere, one of Hood's most moving contributions finds him reflecting on his identity as a Southerner from the porch of his Portland home.  "Ever South" is built on little more than martial drums and a blunt bass, a history lesson that resonates in the heart of one man.  "Everyone takes notice of the drawl that leaves our mouth / So no matter where we are we're ever South".

Freed's colorful art projects a cartoon-like impression of Southern life.  We recognize the faces and the broad caricatures, the dark and almost sinister proposition of working class existence.  On American Band, Drive-by Truckers set aside the fables and stories to talk about the warm blood flowing from real people on our streets.  For a band that's flirted for nearly two decades with the edge, it's an impressively mature, measured and heartfelt gesture.  The guitars continue to play loud and the ghosts of Muscle Shoals continue to haunt these songs, even as we struggle to understand the weight that's bringing down the country and our possible role in raising the flag.

As though we need more, this week also brought me full copies of new records by Reckless Kelly, Matt Woods, Dwight Yoakam and Hiss Golden Messenger, each of which could nose its way onto my yearly favorites over the next several weeks.  Less pressing but more essential is Charlie Rich's devastating 2002 "Feel Like Going Home".  And there's nothing I'm looking forward to more than Alejandro Escovedo's pending collaboration with Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey.

- Porter & the Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes, "Don't Hang Up Virginia" Don't Go Baby It's Gonna Get Weird Without You  (Porter, 16)
^ Drive-by Truckers, "Ever South" American Band  (ATO, 16)
- Reckless Kelly, "Moment In the Sun" Sunset Motel  (No Big Deal, 16)
- Justin Wells, "Three Quarters Gone" Dawn In the Distance  (August, 16)
- Courtney Marie Andrews, "How Quickly Your Heart Mends" Honest Life  (Mama Bird, 16)
- Terry Allen, "Amarillo Highway" Lubbock (On Everything)  (Paradise of Bachelors, 16)
- Ward Davis, "Old Wore Out Cowboys" 15 Years In a 10 Year Town  (Hawkville, 15)
- Brent Cobb, "Solving Problems" Shine On Rainy Day  (Elektra, 16)
- Handsome Family, "King of Dust" Unseen  (Handsome, 16)
- Paul Cauthen, "My Gospel" My Gospel  (Lightning Rod, 16)
- Hollis Brown, "Don't Want To Miss You" Cluster of Pearls  (Alive Naturalsound, 16)
- Dwight Yoakam, "Guitars Cadillacs" Swimmin' Pools Movie Stars  (Sugar Hill, 16)
- Amanda Shires, "When You're Gone" My Piece of Land  (BMG, 16)
- Charlie Rich, "Feel Like Going Home" Pictures & Paintings  (Sire, 92)
- Jim Lauderdale, "Lonely Weekends" Feel Like Going Home: Songs of Charlie Rich  (Memphis Int'l, 16)  D
- Hiss Golden Messenger, "As the Crow Flies" Heart Like a Levee  (Merge, 16)
- Tallest Man On Earth, "Rivers" single  (Merge, 16)
- Joe Purdy, "New Years Eve" Who Will Be Next  (Mudtown Crier, 16)
- Wayne Hancock, "Slingin' Rhythm" Slingin' Rhythm  (Bloodshot, 16)  D
- Bonnie Whitmore, "She's a Hurricane" Fuck With Sad Girls  (Whitmore, 16)  D
- Ryan Bingham, "Back By the River (live)" Musical Mojo of Dr John  (Concord, 16)  D
- Alejandro Escovedo, "Heartbeat Smile" Burn Something Beautiful  (Fantasy, 16)  D
- Mountain Goats, "New Chevrolet In Flames" See America Right  (Mt Goats, 02)
- Matt Woods, "Little Heartache" How To Survive  (Last Chance, 16)
- Aaron Lee Tasjan, "Memphis Rain" Silver Tears  (New West, 16)
- J Roddy Walston & the Business, "Don't Get Old (acoustic)" Don't Break the Needle  (Vagrant, 10)
- Langhorne Slim & the Law, "Two Crooked Hearts" Way We Move  (Ramseur, 08)
- Luke Winslow-King, "Change Your Mind" I'm Glad Trouble Don't Last Always  (Bloodshot, 16)


... and your Soundcloud playlist for this week's Episode awaits you below.

ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

September 10, 2106

Scott Foley

In this, the year of uber producer Dave Cobb, it's appropriate that one of his most worthy offerings comes from a project completed with a cousin, Brent Cobb.  Fact is, the two only became acquainted as adults, reportedly meeting at an aunt's funeral.  Dave has heralded the resulting record, Shine On Rainy Day, as deeply fulfilling, "... everything I wanted to say".  Like Caleb Caudle's release from early this year, or Andrew Combs' 2015 highwater mark, Brent Cobb's fulfilling new collection is a musical revelation.

“South of Atlanta” is a loveletter to a small South Georgia town, to a way of life that still exists (but mostly in our childhood memory).  The music Cobb lays down is as warm and familiar as the small town people he celebrates.  “Lord when I die, let’s make a deal / Lay me down in that town where time stands still”.  It’s a wide open sound, where electric and acoustic share the space with the singer’s charmingly lazy drawl.   

It’s good natured music, too, like the self-deprecating working class romp “Diggin’ Holes”.  Atop a perfect 70s Nashville groove, Cobb apologizes for his shortcomings, “I oughta make my living in a graveyard / Lord knows I’m good at diggin’ holes”. 

The best music brings to mind friends on a porch, not suits in a studio.  “Solving Problems” paints a picture about buddies shootin’ the shit on a Sunday afternoon.  Silence is broken by meandering conversation touching on marrying well, “Mama Tried” by Merle, buying a jeep and “mak(ing) it through next week”.  At just under the 3-minute wire, it checks all the necessary boxes.  It’s Roger Miller-meets-John Hartford with just the right shade of soul.  It’s as laid back and sneakily literate as early John Prine (the mailman, not the folkstar).

A handful of songs on Shine On, especially “Black Crow” and “Let the Rain Come Down”, recall the humid bluesy rock of Tony Joe White.  There’s an overcast darkness and threat to the songs as the music leaves the front porch and wanders a bit along muddy creeks and shadowy hollers. 

“Shine OnRainy Day” eavesdrops on Cobb and an acoustic, his voice filling the small room.  The title cut is the gentlest moment on the record, but resonates with such a genuine Southern sweetness and melancholy soul:  “Ain’t it funny how a little thunder / Make a man start to wonder / Should he swim or just go under / And ain’t it funny how you learn to pray / When your blue skies turn grey / When there’s nothing left to say …”

- Eric Ambel, "Here Come My Love" Lakeside  (Last Chance, 16)
- Seth Walker, "Way Past Midnight" Gotta Get Back  (Royal Potato Family, 16)  D
- Jesse Dayton, "Holy Ghost Rock n' Roller"  The Revealer  (Blue Elan, 16)
- Southern Culture on the Skids, "Dirt Road" Electric Pinecones  (Kudzu, 16)
- Sara Rachele & the Skintights, "Ain't No Train" Motel Fire  (Angrygal, 16)
- North Mississippi Allstars, "Jumpercable Blues" Keys to the Kingdom  (Songs of the South, 11)
- Dex Romweber, "I Don't Know" Carrboro  (Bloodshot, 16)
- Katy Goodman & Greta Morgan, "Over the Edge" Take It It's Yours  (Polyvinyl, 16)
- Drive-by Truckers, "Filthy & Fried (edit)" American Band  (ATO, 16)
- M Lockwood Porter, "American Dream Denied" How to Dream Again  (Black Mesa, 16)  D
- Jack Ingram, "Old Motel" Midnight Motel  (Rounder, 16)
- Kasey Chambers, "Ain't No Little Girl" Ain't No Little Girl EP  (Chambers, 16)  D
- Angel Olsen, "Shut Up Kiss Me" My Woman  (Jagjaguwar, 16)
- Dexateens, "Teenage Hallelujah" Teenage Hallelujah  (Cornelius Chapel, 16)
- Reckless Kelly, "Moment In the Sun" Sunset Motel  (No Big Deal, 16)
- Eilen Jewell, "Home to Me" Queen of the Minor Key  (Signature Sounds, 11)
- John Calvin Abney, "Weekly Rate Palace" Far Cries and Close Calls  (Horton, 16)
- James McMurtry, "Screen Door" Highway Prayer: Tribute to Adam Carroll  (Eight 30, 16)
- Amanda Shires, "Slippin'"  My Piece of Land  (Shires, 16)
- Tim Easton, "Right Before Your Own Eyes" American Fork  (Last Chance, 16)
- Massy Ferguson, "Santa Fe" Run It Right Into the Wall  (Proper, 16)
- Cody Jinks, "Give All You Can" I'm Not the Devil  (Jinks, 16)
- Kelsey Waldon, "All By Myself" I've Got a Way  (Monkey's Eyebrow, 16)
- Deadstring Brothers, "Talkin' Born Blues" Starving Winter Report  (Bloodshot, 05)
- Coal Men, "The Singer (in Louisville)" Pushed to the Side  (Vaskaleedez, 16)
^ Brent Cobb, "Diggin' Holes" Shine On Rainy Day  (Elektra, 16)
- Paul Cauthen, "I'll Be the One" My Gospel  (Lightning Rod, 16)
- Zoe Muth, "Hard Luck Love" Zoe Muth & the Lost High Rollers  (Muth, 09)
- Wilco, "Quarters" Schmilco  (Nonesuch, 16)  D

So, problem with these Spotify playlists (other than the fact that you gotta subscribe to the service) is that not everything I play is available yet.  This makes for an incomplete listening experience, though it's still a bunch of good stuff.

ROUTES & BRANCHES  
a  home for the americana diaspora
September 3, 2016
Scott Foley

I was born on a side road far from here / While the town was burning out my dark window /  I was crowned with a cage of cold barbed wire / And my bottle I keep with me even till now
-- Boz Skaggs

Very nice this week to be contacted by Mr Bill Frater of Freight Train Boogie fame regarding an interview for his No Depression column.  Frater writes "Radio Friendly", shedding light on americana djs, promoters, luminaries and such.  Please take a look at my lil' interview here.  One of my sons called it "dad humor"  -  fathers must be a plenty funny people ...

Also, you'll notice that I've been paying good attention to Lydia Loveless' recent Real release over the past several weeks.  I wrote a piece about it on Charles Hale's Ajax Diner Book Club blog (brought to you by the word "smitten").

Little shorter playlist this Episode, owing to a kind studio visit from cellist singer-songwriter Ben Sollee.  Not a slew of debuts, but following the muse deeper into new stuff from Devil Makes Three, Handsome Family, Dexateens and more.  Hollis Brown have taken a really satisfying turn in a more soulful direction on their new EP.  Plus, I spin a 2001 Songs: Ohia cover of a Boz Scaggs song. I didn't know the thing existed until this week, but it's one of the fullest, most transcendent things Jason Molina recorded.  Fortunately, you can check it out on the Spotify playlist below, if you got the Spotify.

Got a generous mailing from John Calvin Abney this week.  In addition to his laudable new Far Cries & Close Calls record, there was a short typewritten note.  Like from a typewriter.  In an age of mass produced, impersonal communications, it was special to hold the paper to the light, run my hands across the type and know that there was a human at the return address.

Abney's 2015 debut, Better Luck, initially caught my attention because of the involvement of fellow Okie John Moreland.  It earned its spot on the R&B playlist for its mature roots rock writing and originality.  Far Cries exceeds that promise, and should by all means vault the perennial multi-instrumental sideman to a more prominent national position.

"Beauty Seldom Seen" kicks Far Cries into gear, melodic roots pop built on chiming electric guitars and sighing steel. Abney sings with a youthful snarl that might recall early Tom Petty:  It's a long tired dream / Fighting for a losing team / And I feel just like a refugee.  A bright wurlitzer chirps through "Goodbye Temporarily", which also adds violin and harmonica for a mid-period John Mellencamp vibe.  The upbeat, major key spirit of a number of the songs are balanced by accompanying lyrics that are by no means dour, but tend towards self doubt and uncertainty.  I'm not the man that you refused / You're not the girl I left behind me.

Other songs pare the arrangements to a bare minimum and bring to mind the tragic urban folk of Elliott Smith - the vocals are sometimes even double-tracked a'la Smith.  "In Such a Strange Town" is a beautifully, confidently spare acoustic waltz:  I want a picture over a prayer / Maintenance touch, your reticent glare / Star keeper I'm back / Can you tell me / I've confused dreams with memories.  Abney's lyrics are rarely direct, but can be meaningful in a poetically opaque way.

The point to the parade of comparisons isn't to say that John Calvin Abney isn't his own artist.  While there's an appealingly eclectic quality to his music, there's also an accompanying familiarity that abides from one song to the next.  He is neither burdened by the pressure to stay true to any single "vibe" nor driven to wander too far afield in an artificial attempt to be everything to everybody.  At heart, songs like "Jailbreak" simply engage at the most genuine level, appealing to our love of a true tune well constructed.  In that light, perhaps the most apt comparison would be to Ryan Adams.

With a rude swagger, hellbent guitar and pounding drums, "Weekly Rate Palace" is the record's most direct bar band rocker.  On a record that's so smartly arranged and impressively played (primarily by the man himself, it would seem), it's heartwarming to hear such a freewheeling racket from Abney and friends.  It's just another sharp tool in his belt, another shade on a record that ranges from bright and brash sunlight to overcast and introspective.

- Songs: Ohia, "Sweet Release" Burlap Palace: Tribute to the Muscle Shoals Sound  (Soundgun, 01)
- Shinyribs, "Victoria" Desperate Times: Songs of the Old 97s  (Jeff Neely, 16)
- Devil Makes Three, "I Am the Man Thomas" Redemption & Ruin  (New West, 16)
- Shakey Graves, "Tomorrow" In Case You Missed It: 15 Years of Dualtone  (Dualtone, 16)  D
- Porter & the Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes, "Don't Hang Up Virginia" Don't Go Baby It's Gonna Get Weird Without You  (Chris Porter, 16)  D
- Angel Olsen, "Never Be Mine" My Woman  (Jagjaguwar, 16)  D
- Dexateens, "Fellowship of the Saturday Night Brotherhood" Teenage Hallelujah  (Cornelius Chapel, 16)
- Hollis Brown, "Cold City" Cluster of Pearls  (Alive Naturalsound, 16)
- Lydia Loveless, "Midwestern Guys" Real  (Bloodshot, 16)
- Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, "Laid Low" Constant Stranger  (Big Legal Mess, 16)
- BJ Barham, "Reidsville" Rockingham  (Barham, 16)
- Jack Ingram, "I'm Drinking Through It" Midnight Motel  (Rounder, 16)  D
- Justin Wells, "The Dogs" Dawn In the Distance  (August, 16)
- Shelby Lynne, "Lonesome" Identity Crisis  (Capitol, 03)
- Courtney Marie Andrews, "Rookie Dreaming" Honest Life  (Mama Bird, 16)
- Handsome Family, "Tiny Tina" Unseen  (Handsome Family, 16)
- Dwight Yoakam, "Purple Rain" Swimmin' Pools Movie Stars  (Sugar Hill, 16)
- Luke Winslow-King, "I'm Glad Trouble Don't Last Always" I'm Glad Trouble Don't Last Always  (Bloodshot, 16)
- Arliss Nancy, "Dufresne" Greater Divides  (Arliss Nancy, 16)  C
- Shovels & Rope, "St Anne's Parade" Little Seeds  (New West, 16)
- Elliott BROOD, "Garden Rivers" Mountain Meadow  (Six Shooter, 09)

ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
August 27, 2016
Scott Foley

And I'm up too damn early in the morning / Watching the world around me come alive / I need more fingers to count the ones I love / This life may be too good to survive  --  Shovels & Rope

It's been way too long since we celebrated music that's just plain dumb fun.  Think songs about drinking and cursing and having relations.  Think Dexateens and their new collection, Teenage Hallelujah.  After weeks of touting Music That Matters, with Important Lyrics and Earnest Sentiments and Stuff To Think About, this Episode we draw attention to music that appeals to a different bone.  And I mean no harm here.  I heap only the highest praise on bands like the Dexateens who can create music that is both musically satisfying and emotionally immature.  It's Patterson Hood taking us to "Buttholeville", or Rhett Miller reflecting on "If My Heart Was a Car".  Or Elliott McPherson picking us up in the Dexateens' "Shake n Bake Astrovan".

Think that Southerners spend their entire day eating cornbread and raising hell?  Well, try "Eat Cornbread Raise Hell".  Hailing from the wilds of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Dexateens' songs are actually profoundly Southern, steeped and soaked in the mythologies of the South.  Because that rich dark dirt still clings to their roots, the stereotypes, criticisms and put downs directed at their fellow Southerners are as acceptable as Harry Crews' love/hate characterizations.  As loose and sloppy as early Replacements, Dexateens are at their best just pounding away with equal glee and futility.  Fondness and frustration.  "Old Rebel" builds on slammed drums and beaten bass before succumbing to a fuzz of muddy guitar, calling out the foolishness of neighbors who pine for the resurrection of bygone symbols from the blue-and-gray to "Ronnie Van Z" and the KKK.   It's no coincidence that former Dexateens have ventured from the nest to bring the fire to flag bearing bands like Drive-by Truckers and Lee Bains III & Glory Fires.

Which isn't to say that the Dexateens apply the same blunt hammer throughout Teenage Hallelujah.  "Fellowship of the Saturday Night Brotherhood" tears the curtain between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Other pieces like "Working Hands" or "Treat Me Right" still trip along with the same shambling punk spirit, though they also feature some acoustic shading and an atypical softer touch.

Then we're back to the title cut, a 2 1/2 minute fight song that incorporates the irresistible rhythms of early garage rock and blues.  On the Pop Matters blog, frontman Elliott McPherson puts a bow on it:  "Some of this record was written about fun recreational stuff that we enjoy doing down here in Alabama and the hungover yearning for repentance that comes when you overdo it.  Raising children, raising hell, spiritual searching, Alabama football, and of course old fashioned rock and roll".

Other new stuff this week from Kent Eugene Goolsby, John Calvin Abney and Aaron Lee Tasjan.  With John Paul White, Courtney Marie Andrews, that's enough to cause a guy to wonder if he's subconsciously attracted to three name artists ...  Best Song Ever for this week comes from Shovels & Rope's forthcoming Little Seeds record.  As cited above, it a sweet, sparse celebration of friendship.

- Karen Dalton, "Something On Your Mind" In My Own Time  (Light In the Attic, 71)
- Billy Bragg & Joe Henry, "Hobo's Lullaby" Shine a Light  (Cooking Vinyl, 16)
- Greensky Bluegrass, "Take Cover" Shouted Written Down & Quoted  (Big Blue Zoo, 16)
- Southern Culture On the Skids, "Freak Flag" Electric Pinecones  (Kudzu, 16)
- Gourds, "Wired Ole Gal" Blood Of the Ram  (Eleven Thirty, 04)
- Justin Wells, "Going Down Grinnin'" Dawn In the Distance  (August, 16)
- Kent Eugene Goolsby, "Loveless Prayers" Temper Of the Times  (Goolsby, 16)  D
- Lori McKenna, "If Whiskey Were a Woman" Bird & the Rifle  (McKenna, 16)
- Hiss Golden Messenger, "Tell Her I'm Just Dancing" Heart Like a Levee  (Merge, 16)
- Aaron Lee Tasjan, "Little Movies" Silver Tears  (New West, 16)  D
- Hollis Brown, "Don't Want To Lose You" Cluster of Pearls  (Alive Naturalsound, 16)  D
- Richmond Fontaine, "Don't Look and It Won't Hurt" The Fitzgerald  (El Cortez, 05)
- John Prine w/Susan Tedeschi, "Color Of the Blues" For Better Or Worse  (Oh Boy, 16)
- John Calvin Abney, "Beauty Seldom Seen" Far Cries and Close Calls  (Horton, 16)  D
- Lydia Loveless, "Same To You" Real  (Bloodshot, 16)
- John Paul White, "I've Been Over This Before" Beulah  (Single Lock, 16)
- James McMurtry, "Screen Door" Highway Prayer: Tribute To Adam Carroll  (Eight 30, 16)  D
- Carolyn Mark, "In Another Time" Come! Back! Special!  (Roaring Girl, 16)
- Dwight Yoakam, "These Arms" Swimmin' Pools Movie Stars  (Sugar Hill, 16)  D
- Courtney Marie Andrews, "Irene" Honest Life  (Mama Bird, 16)
- Brent Cobb, "Black Crow" Shine On Rainy Day  (Elektra, 16)
- Jesse Dayton, "Daddy Was a Badass" The Revealer  (Blue Elan, 16)  D
- Townes Van Zandt, "Pancho & Lefty (live)" Live At the Old Quarter Houston Texas  (Tomato, 77)
- Shovels & Rope, "St. Anne's Parade" Little Seeds  (New West, 16)
- Amanda Shires, "WhenYou're Gone" My Piece of Land  (Shires, 16)
^ Dexateens, "Teenage Hallelujah" Teenage Hallelujah  (Cornelius Chapel, 16)  D
- Tim Easton, "Elmore James" American Fork  (Last Chance, 16)
- Whiskeytown, "Waiting To Derail" Strangers Almanac  (Geffen, 97)