ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
August 18, 2019
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

When you come across a band named Leslie Stevens and the Badgers, you just gotta listen.  The LA outfit's 2010 Roomful of Smoke flirted with national attention, and I believe I met them briefly during a tourstop at the former radio home of R&B.  Despite the worthy moniker, the group disbanded, leaving Stevens to release 2016's Donkey and the Rose, an overlooked gem (that was even overlooked by me).  Leslie Stevens' new collection, Sinner (LyricLand, Aug 23), appeared on my radar several weeks ago.  The record's first singles herald the long-awaited arrival of the songwriter onto a national stage.

Leslie Stevens' voice, a pure and emotive wonder, will have you curious about where she's been and why you might not have heard from her sooner.  In an interview from a couple years ago, she admitted to being a chronic songwriter: If you could see how many hours I spend writing songs and the percentage of crap that comes of it ... I guess if you write a thousand songs, chances are nine of them aren't gonna suck.  Fortunately, it seems her bubble has risen nearer the surface once again, lifted by some national publicity and a handful of songs that truly don't suck ...

Sinner is a wide-ranging affair, with a generous range of styles on tap.  Stevens originally hails from Missouri, and she brings both the backwoods and the big city LA to her music. "Storybook" recalls Nanci Griffiths' country-folk, anchored by low end piano and cushioned in breezy synthesizer.  "Falling" is an old school country weeper, a pretty sigh that sounds like Patsy Cline as crossed with Dolly.  With producer Jonathan Wilson, Stevens has created a picture-perfect setting for these numbers, more piano than guitar, and never too far from the next keening pedal steel.  While her voice assures that listeners will have no trouble identifying Sinner as a country album, its more contemporary gestures assure that it sounds current as Kim Richey or Lori McKenna.

There's simply no overlooking the power of Stevens' voice on songs like the lovely "You Don't Have To Be So Tough".  While they travel different musical landscapes, it's almost as remarkable as hearing Patty Griffin or Brandi Carlile on their respective debuts. "Sylvie" is a slowbuilding number, an homage to an artist that boasts Stevens' most indelible delivery.  She pushes her voice beyond the typical country modes of expression.

This being said, and despite her evident humility, Leslie Stevens' vocal instrument shouldn't overshadow her skills as a roots music writer.  There's bad in the best of us / There's good in the rest of us she declares on the dark title track.  "Sinner" is more Wrecking Ball than Blue Kentucky Girl, an ambient and unhurried confession.  "Depression Descent" is a more upbeat alt.country track, featuring producer Wilson sharing backing vocals: Happiness came and went / Depression descent.  "12 Feet High" recalls a soulful Doug Sahm cut, replete with an Augie-esque organ line:  I try to keep the weakness from my poetry / But it sneaks back in just like a honeybee.  As a writer, she is unafraid of momentary descent into darker matter, capable of sliding aside the curtain to reveal fears and shortcomings that serve to make her music more human.

Over the past several weeks I've focused the efforts of this blog on stuff that does unexpected things with the familiar notes that populate all of the music we play.  In the world of Routes & Branches, it is these artists who continue to assure the relevance of our kind of music.  It's actually a bit of a warm homecoming to shed this week's light on a performer like Leslie Stevens who simply makes me want to listen to a gorgeous voice delivering a well-wrought song.  In the end, that's what keeps me coming back week after week, ready for what's next.

- Adrienne Lenker & Buck Meek, "Indiana" A-Sides  (Saddle Creek, 14)
- Big Thief, "Not" Two Hands  (4AD, Oct 11)  D
- Whitney, "Used to Be Lonely" Forever Turned Around  (Secretly Canadian, Aug 30)
- Allah-Las, "Polar Onion" LAHS  (Mexican Summer, Oct 11)
- Hiss Golden Messenger, "Happy Birthday Baby" Terms of Surrender  (Merge, Sep 20)
- Brittany Howard, "He Loves Me" Jaime  (ATO, Sep 20)
- Andrew Combs, "Born Without a Clue" Ideal Man  (New West, Sep 20)
- Jeremy Ivey, "Greyhound (feat. Margo Price)" Dream and the Dreamer  (Anti, Sep 13)
- Beachwood Sparks, "Tarnished Gold" Tarnished Gold  (Sub Pop, 12)
- RF Shannon, "Buzzards on the Breeze" Rain on Dust  (Keeled Scales, 19)
- Replacements, "Achin' to Be (Bearsville Version)" Dead Man's Pop  (Warner, Sep 27)
- Angie McMahon, "Play the Game" Salt  (Dualtone, 19)
- Jesse Malin, "Chemical Heart" Sunset Kids  (Wicked Cool, Aug 30)
- Old 97s, "When I Crash - demo" They Made a Monster  (Omnivore, 12)
- John Calvin Abney, "Kind Days" Safe Passage  (Black Mesa, Sep 27)
- Rodney Crowell, "Texas Drought Pt. 1" TEXAS  (RC1, 19)
- Lillie Mae, "Didn't I" Other Girls  (Third Man, 19)
- Darrell Scott, "Hopkinsville" Long Ride Home  (Full Light, 11)
- Corb Lund, "Ride On (feat. Ian Tyson)" Cover Your Tracks  (New West, Sep 13)
- Eilen Jewell, "You Cared Enough To Lie" Gypsy  (Signature Sounds, 19)
- Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, "Friend of Mine" Take Heart Take Care  (Big Legal Mess, Aug 30)
- Richmond Fontaine, "$87 Dollars and a Guilty Conscience" $87 and a Guilty Conscience  (El Cortez, 07)
- Jamie Lin Wilson, "Alice" single  (JLW, 19)  D
- Highwomen, "Highwomen" Highwomen  (Elektra, Sep 6)
- Michaela Anne, "Somebody New" Desert Dove  (Yep Roc, Sep 27)
- Chris Knight, "Mexican Home (feat. John Prine)" Almost Daylight  (Drifter's Church, Oct 11)
- Kill County, "A Little More Blood" Everything Must Die  (573668 Records, 19)  D
- Alexa Rose, "Like a Child" Medicine For Living  (Big Legal Mess, Oct 4)
- Amy LaVere, "No Battle Hymn" Painting Blue  (Nine Mile, 19)  D
- James Leg, "Is That You In the Blue" While No One Was Looking  (Bloodshot, 14)

So remember last week's Episode when I bemoaned how new release announcements had gone dry?  And then the week before when I mentioned how I'd be keeping our mentions to just the five most prominent?  Well, to hell with 'em all.  This week saw almost twenty additions to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, our compulsively updated accounting of what's on the horizon for our kind of music.  This week, that horizon is simply nutty with stuff.

We'll start with a couple mentions of records that dropped on Friday, but largely escaped my notice until then.  Actually, I'd included Messenger: Tribute to Ray Wylie Hubbard at the bottom of our list for months (literally, months!) without a proper release date.  Songs had dropped here and there, and I'm still not finding everything on all streaming services, but it looks like the tribute is at least available on Bandcamp.  Contributors to this one include James McMurtry, Band of Heathens, Scott Biram, John Dee Graham and many mo'.  Also landing on doorsteps this week is Kill County's cheerily titled Everything Must Die.

Wood Brothers have announced a September 6th date for another live set, this one recorded over a two-night stand at San Francisco's iconic music hall, Live at the Fillmore.  We loved JP Harris' 2017 EP of classic duets with female singer-songwriters.  Harris has scheduled a follow-up for September 13, Why Don't We Duet In the Road (Again) promises four more classics with contributors like Erin Rae and Elizabeth Cook.

Looking towards October, we're expecting Let It Burn from GospelbeacH on the 4th, as well as our first holiday addition, a promising full-length from Los Lobos called Llego Navidad.  Come October 11th, we can expect something "pretty harsh" from Tim Barry, who will be issuing Roads to Richmond.  And consider us eager to hear more from Big Thief's second full-length of 2019, a bare-bones project called Two Hands.  Save October 25th to engage with new stuff from Simon Joyner and Michael Kiwanuka.

Finally, November brings records from Miranda Lambert, whose Wildcard is guaranteed to be on the harder side if our first three singles are any indicator.  The digital edition of Kasey Anderson's seventh CD, To the Places We Lived, will happen on November 8th, though fans of more tangible souvenirs will have to wait until Spring.  We're also saving space before the year's end for Spread the Feeling, the first proper Pernice Brothers album since 2010.

So yes ...  your weekly ROUTES-cast:

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