ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

September 22, 2019

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

You'll spot John Calvin Abney in a lot of John Moreland performance videos.  He's the (much) smaller guy with the guitar or the harmonica or the keyboard, the shaggy-haired, unshaven fellow who looks like he's having a ball there, along for the ride with one of the shooting stars of our kind of music.  You also might have caught Abney during his work with folks like Levi Parham, Samantha Crain, Beth Bombara or Chris Porter.  Fact is, for all the time he spends as a smaller font feature, it's kind of a wonder he has time to see to his own business.

But John Calvin Abney has been issuing his solo albums reliably since 2015's Better Luck.  We've followed his output on R&B through the superb Far Cries and Close Calls (2016) and last year's Coyote.  Each incorporates the singer-songwriter roots of his cohorts, while adding a little something the Oklahoma artist has held back from those other collaborations. The same is true for his new project, Safe Passage (Black Mesa, Sept 27).

Whereas most of his work as a producer and sideman falls solidly in the americana bucket, Abney's solo work might be more accurately tagged as indie folk, perhaps with recurring shades of pop or country.  For every pedal steel or harmonica, songs like "Kind Days" add keyboards or dreamily sighing vocals.  I think I've mentioned Elliott Smith in every one of my John Calvin Abney reviews, and there's nothing to stop me here.  Abney's delivery is not a knockoff, but he shares the late artist's proximity to pop, as well as a voice that hits closer to home the more it breaks.  "Kind Days" finds him testing the far edges of his range: Bad days are leaving / No use in grieving / Here come those kind days.

Safe Passage encourages listeners to share a positive perspective, or at least to be gentle with ourselves.  Even in the wake of the passing of his father while the sessions were being completed, Abney turns his face to the light.  On "When the Dark Wind Blows", he counsels: You can't be everything to everyone you know / So give yourself some grace / When those dark winds blow.  With its bright harmonica and prominent organ, the song brings to mind The Band's loose amalgam of tangled roots.  A multi-instrumentalist himself, Abney is surrounded in the studios by a cohort of friends, including Moreland, Will Johnson, Shonna Tucker and Megan Palmer.

Not all on this new collection is sunshine and flowers.  One of the more upbeat tunes, "Days of Disconnect" adds orchestration atop the chimey pop, even as the lyrics threaten to cloud the proceedings: What more could I expect / In your days of disconnect / Camouflage is wearing thin / You want a mirror, not a friend.  And a note of melancholy sounds through many of the songs.  "Backwards Spring" lazes on a breeze of pedal steel: I've been sleeping in my car / To feel like it did in those days / Is that just the way we are / Or did we let the good get away.

For its studio of stars, Safe Passages is a confidently laidback album, instrumentally solid and capable of delivering a warm musical embrace.  "Turn Again" most fully realizes Abney's country leanings, including Megan Palmer's fiddle to great effect: If you find yourself turning / Back to the places you've been / Turn again.  "I Just Want To Feel Good" is a barebones voice-and-guitar session, but it speaks volumes and sets the stage for the record's generous spirit.  The fingerpicked guitar is elegant, with Abney delivering his lyric like Tallest Man on Earth.  A hushed secret shared among friends: I'm here most nights / Singing to make sense / Of the uncertain times / I just sat upon the fence / Singing for green grass and falsehoods / Now I just want to feel good.

- Darrin Bradbury, "Trouble With Time (feat. Margo Price)" Talking Dogs & Atom Bombs  (Anti, 19)
- Old Crow Medicine Show, "Louisiana Woman Mississippi Man (feat. Margo Price)" Live at the Ryman  (OCMS, Oct 4)
- Highwomen, "If She Ever Leaves Me" Highwomen  (Elektra, 19)
- Cody Jinks, "William and Wanda" After the Fire  (Late August, Oct 11)
- Jamie Lin Wilson, "Dirty Blonde Hair" Dirty Blonde Hair EP  (Wilson, 10)
- Dead South, "Blue Trash" Sugar & Joy  (Six Shooter, Oct 11)
^ John Calvin Abney, "I Just Want To Feel Good" Safe Passage  (Black Mesa, Sep 27)
- Trigger Hippy, "Strung Out On the Pain" Full Circle & Then Some  (Turkey Grass, Oct 11)  D
- Wilco, "Everyone Hides" Ode to Joy  (dBpm, Oct 4)
- Hiss Golden Messenger, "Bright Direction (You're a Dark Star Now)" Terms of Surrender  (Merge, 19)
- Brittany Howard, "Short and Sweet" Jaime  (ATO, 19)
- Andrew Combs, "Shipwreck Man" Ideal Man  (New West, 19)
- White Stripes, "300mph Torrential Outpour Blues" Icky Thump  (Third Man, 07)
- Molly Sarle, "Passenger Side" Karaoke Angel  (Partisan, 19)
- Michael Chapman, "Stranger's Map of Texas" Americana I & II  (Mooncrest, Sep 27)  D
- Chris Knight, "Damn Truth" Almost Daylight  (Drifters Church, Oct 11)
- Lera Lynn, "Dark Horse" single  (Lera Lynn, 19)  D
- Alvin Youngblood Hart, "Amazed 'n Amused" Big Mama's Door  (Sony, 96)
- Cody Jinks, "Which One I Feed" The Wanting  (Late August, Oct 18)  D
- Rachel Harrington, "I Meant To Go To Memphis" Hush the Wild Horses  (Harrington, 19)  D
- JP  Harris, "On the Rebound (feat. Elizabeth Cook)" Why Don't We Duet in the Road (Again)  (Demolition & Removal, 19)
- Ruston Kelly, "Teenage Dirtbag (live)" Dirt Emo Vol. 1  (Rounder, Oct 11)
- Star Anna, "Devil Don't Remember My Name" Crooked Path  (Local 638, 08)
- Todd Farrell Jr, "Everything Must Go" One Great Tribute: Love Letter To the Weakerthans  (One Great Tribute, Nov 25)  D
- Vetiver, "Swaying" Up on High  (Mama Bird, Nov 1)
- Itasca, "Lily" Spring  (Paradise of Bachelors, Nov 1)
- Simon Joyner, "Yellow Jacket Blues" Pocket Moon  (Grapefruit, Oct 25)
- Pieta Brown, "Freeway" Freeway  (Righteous Babe, 19)
- Alexa Rose, "Last Wildflower" Medicine For Living  (Big Legal Mess, Oct 4)
- Dr Dog, "Too Weak to Ramble" B-Room  (Anti, 13)

Click over to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, and you'll be greeted with a year's worth of quality releases.  This week's additions include a new line-up for Trigger Hippy.  Their second release, Full Circle and Then Some (Turkey Grass, Oct 11), is still built around the Black Crowes' rhythm section, but instead of Joan Osborne and Jackie Greene, they're joined by Amber Woodhouse and Band of Heathens' Ed Jurdi.  Austin Lucas' last studio record was called Immortal Americans.  On October 18, Last Chance Records will present No One Is Immortal, a live set by Lucas and The Bold Party.  That same day will find David Nail issuing Ghost of Love on Continental Record Service.  Roots 'n blues artist Janiva Magness will cover the songs of John Fogerty on Change in the Weather (Blue Elan, Sept 13).  And make room for an eclectic tribute to Canada's Weakerthans.  One Great Tribute: A Love Letter To the Weakerthans will land on November 15, featuring contributions from Austin Lucas, Have Gun Will Travel, Todd Farrell Jr and more.

ROUTES-casts from 2019 have been removed; subscribe to our Spotify page to keep up with all our new playlists!

ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
September 15, 2019
Scott Foley, purveyor of what-have-you

It happens too often, when a band we love declares its dissolution.  An act we've shadowed since Day 1 cites Artistic Differences, even though their music makes all the difference in the world to you.  From here in the Square State, Arliss Nancy's records brought great joy to our ears.  Their 2012 Simple Machines stood atop my favorite albums list for that year, and subsequent volleys held prominent places as well, Wild American Runners in '15 and 2016's Greater Divides.  Far as I was concerned, their sharp-edged and deep-souled alt.country punk achieved the perfect tension between all these forces at play.

With the Fort Collins band flying the Indefinite Hiatus flag, writer and frontman Cory Call has decamped to Munich, pairing with a couple fellow ex-pats and locals as Little Teeth in an effort to refocus his musical chi.  Redefining Home (Gunner Records, Sept 27) will appease Arliss Nancy fans, even as it extends Call's literate songwriting in a more melodic punk direction.

We got to slow down / No road goes on forever, they all end / But with you I would run thru dark right off its edge he sings on "Western Skies", his distinct voice climbing jagged guitars and dodging primal drums.  The cover of Redefining Home shows a group mounting the stairs onto an airplane, hinting at the record's theme of chasing a dream and finding a new home.  These aren't uncommon sentiments for Call, who has frequently written of community and place, and of his own demons which are never far from the scene.

Bandmate Jason Thompson hails from Chicago's The Sky We Scrape, a band whose heavier guitars and anthemic choruses influence the course of these sessions.  Songs like "Atlanticism" set a powerful sonic stage from which Cory Call launches his vocal to new heights.  He's never been a conventional lyricist, favoring more confessional passages with a literary bent rare for punk writers: Well I try to believe, and I sweat through the sheets / The lonely disposition that keeps following me / I do what I need, I try to stay true to the sound / Because we know it's better when the walls start crashing down.  Like Lee Bains of the Glory Fires, Call can shoehorn more 25-cent words into a lyric than most, but never simply for the sake of making an impression.  His spares no dark detail in laying out his heart:  I know I got a problem with drinking, he shares on "Amphetamine".  I like my amphetamines / If I make it through tomorrow evening / Makes a motherfucking week that I stayed clean.

That genuine tendency comes through most clearly when he reflects on his life as a travelling musician.  From "Sixteen Candles":  All I wanted was just these songs / All I know, nothing ever mattered but these basement shows / Alone and getting hammered with the friends who chose / Music as a better way to make our way out of the fire.  Unlike Arliss Nancy, Little Teeth allow no space for quieter reflection, pounding drums and stabbing guitars setting the pace for every song.  But like early Two Cow Garage or Drag the River, it's not just noise for noise's sake.  There is generous melody to even the darkest tunes.  "Drunk Apostles" recalls Call's formative days, name-dropping tourmates:  Soon I found myself on airplanes / Flying overseas to tour with the MakeWar boys / And occupy an empty seat in tour vans and hostels / Bar rat saints and drunk apostles / And a road that led me home.

At one time, home was the shitty mountain town where I grew up, but his window now frames a very different landscape, one offering new possibilities and wider horizons.  While songs like "Thinning Out" wouldn't sound entirely out of place on Greater Divides, Cory Call has obviously turned a page.  Time will tell if there is a resolution to Arliss Nancy's hiatus, or if that would be reaching into a past that no longer makes sense.  On the punchy "Bender" he sings: Dawn made a break in the West / And it broke the young man's heart / An exit from center stage, final page in an epilogue / Now I'm left to paraphrase a life full of unfinished songs.  For now, Call's voice is well suited for Little Teeth's anthemic punk, stuff that will sound great thundering from a stage or tearing through a car speaker.  Stuff that could pierce your heart if you listen close enough.  Even from the other side of the Atlantic.

But there's a light / It's shining over Little Eden tonight / It's calling us home to a place I know I don't belong anymore / City streets in your mountain town / Well, it's teemed with ghosts / If you're in need of haunting let me know.

- Pernice Brothers, "Devil and the Jinn" Spread the Feeling  (Ashmont, 19)
- Low, "Plastic Cup" Invisible Way  (Sub Pop, 13)
- Angel Olsen, "Lark" All Mirrors  (Jagjaguwar, Oct 4)
- Leif Vollebekk, "Transatlantic Flight" New Ways  (Secret City, Nov 1)
- Jesse Malin, "Do You Really Wanna Know" Sunset Kids  (Wicked Cool, 19)
- Whippoorwill, "Cold Sound" Nature of Storms  (Whippoorwill, Nov 15)  D
- Red River Dialect, "My Friend" Abundance Welcoming Ghosts  (Paradise of Bachelors, Sep 27)  D
- Weakerthans, "Plea From a Cat Named Virtue" Reconstruction Site  (Epitaph, 03)
- Great Peacock, "Cortez the Killer" single  (Peacock, 19)  D
- Erika Wennerstrom, "Louisiana Man (feat. Mercury Rev)" single  (Partisan, 19)  D
- Logan Ledger, "Oh Sister (feat. Courtney Marie Andrews)" I Don't Dream Anymore EP  (Rounder, Oct 4)
- Jeremy Ivey, "Worry Doll" Dream and the Dreamer  (ATO, 19)
- Low Anthem,  "Champion Angel" Oh My God Charlie Darwin: 10th Anniversary  (Low Anthem, Nov 15)
- Cody Jinks, "Think Like You Think" After the Fire  (Late August, Oct 11)
- Lauren Pratt, "Blue Eyes" Young American Sycamore  (Pratt, 19)
- Miranda Lambert & co, "Fooled Around and Fell In Love" single  (Vanner, 19)  D
- Corb Lund, "They're Hanging Me Tonight" Cover Your Tracks  (New West, 19)
- JP Harris, "Early Morning Rain (feat. Erin Rae)" Why Don't We Duet In the Road (Again)  (Demolition & Removal, 19)  D
- Corinne Bailey Rae, "Jersey Girl" Come On Up to the House: Women Sing Waits  (Dualtone, Nov 22)
- Tom VandenAvond, "World Is All Wrong" Common Law  (Hillgrass Bluebilly, 19)
- Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, "Educated Guesses" Take Heart Take Care  (Big Legal Mess, 19)
- Matt Pond PA, "Sparrows" Dark Leaves  (Altitude, 10)
- Milk Carton Kids, "The Only Ones" The Only Ones EP  (MCK, Oct 18)  D
- Brent Cobb, "Feet Off the Ground (feat. Jade Bird)" single  (Elektra, 19)  D
- Michaela Anne, "I'm Not the Fire" Desert Dove  (Yep Roc, Sep 27)
- Son Volt, "Strength and Doubt" American Central Dust  (Rounder, 09)
- Amy LaVere, "Not in Memphis" Painting Blue  (Nine Mile, 19)
- Dillon Carmichael, "I Do For You" I Do For You EP  (Riser House, Oct 18)  D
- Kelsey Waldon, "White Noise White Lines" White Noise / White Lines  (Oh Boy, Oct 4)
- Castanets, "I'll Fly Away" City of Refuge  (Asthmatic Kitty, 08)

This is where we smash a whole bunch of words together about stuff we've added to our Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster.  I was recently challenged to tell a reader exactly what that meant.  Well, "Your Monster" = your insatiable appetite for new music that matters.  I got one, and this entire blog is predicated on the existence of other folks with a similar craving.  You might, f'rinstance, care that Cody Jinks will be unleashing two (2) new studio projects before the calendar ticks to 2020:  It looks like After the Fire is set for October 11, followed a week later by The Wanting.  Rising star Erin Enderlin has released a trio of EPs in recent days.  She'll be collecting those songs and more on a full-length Faulkner County  (Black Crow, Nov 1).  Square State readers will recognize one-time Patti Fiasco frontperson Alysia Kraft, and maybe even Tobias Bank.  They compose 2/3 of Whippoorwill, who have set November 15 as the arrival date for Nature of Storms.  Milk Carton Kids will soon embark on something they're calling "A Night With the Milk Carton Kids in Very Small Venues at Very Low Ticket Prices Tour".  You'll hear a preview on their October 18 EP, The Only Ones.  We've included a Great Peacock cover on this week's Episode.  Sounds like they're prepping a CD for 2020 release, presently entitled High Wind.  Is there more?  Yes, there's more, so please click the link. 

ROUTES-casts from 2019 have been removed; subscribe to our Spotify page to keep up with all our new playlists!

ROUTES & BRANCHES  

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

September 8, 2019

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Will Johnson has been on a tear for ... well, since his early work with Centro-Matic in the 90s.  In what seems like quick succession, the serial collaborator presented projects with what's become a familiar litany of like-minded pilgrims:  Jason Molina, Vic Chesnutt, Jim James, Jay Farrar, Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, just to name a handful.  The commonality in Johnson's free-range artistry has been a dogged pursuit of his muse, an elusive and secretive thing.

What's evident and rewarding in Will Johnson's 6th solo outing, Wire Mountain (Keeled Scales, Sept 27) is that his muse is a moving target.  Throughout his band work, his "supergroup" projects and his solo work, there's been a consistent sonic value, even as his music has continuously evolved.  His first collection for the Keeled Scales label follows 2017's Hatteras Night A Good Luck Charm, finding Johnson digging deeper into the grit of his electric guitar, as he surrounds himself with a more diverse assemblage of sounds and instrumentation.

It could be argued that the story of Wire Mountain can be traced back further, to 2015's Swan City Vampires.  All three sessions were conducted by Britton Beisenherz at his Ramble Creek stronghold in Austin.  Each record is to some extent an experiment in manipulating sonic space, and in composing a soundtrack to a certain landscape and people.  Like Matthew Genitempo's cover art, the specific elements of Johnson's songs are immediately recognizable, even when delivered through a lens of fuzz and distortion.  Also joining him in the studio are Bill Callahan percussionist Thor Harrison, legendary Austin guitarist and songwriter Jon Dee Graham and members of the enigmatic folk act Little Mazarn.

This trilogy of records achieves a balance between intimacy and distance, directness and ambiance.  Wire Mountain opens with the crash of guitar and hammered percussion, Johnson's vocals nestled close to the ears like a conspiratorial whisper.  In some ways, this is some of the most spacious music he's created as a solo artist, though the persistence of growling electric guitar and heavy percussion muddy the view (in all the best ways).  Just over two minutes into "A Carousel Victor", that electric guitar lurches to life, a spark illuminating the otherwise obscured proceedings.

As a writer, Will Johnson tends to be an impressionist rather than a storyteller.  He's not using lyrics carelessly, though it's never easy to say what any song is "about".  One of the CD's more straightforward cuts, "A Solitary Slip" is reportedly an apology to his spouse for his own shortcomings.  A beautiful piece lifted by piano and echoed guitar, Johnson confesses: For all you give to me / I'll fail to repay thee / Clumsy and adrift and / Rarely something graceful.  More typical is the heavy cascading drums and stinging guitar of "Cornelius":  Now look at us / You and me are stuck amongst the hopers, creeps and fluffers out here in the dust.  Johnson's vocals are frequently joined by Lindsey Verrill's, here adding a choral effect new to his songs.

Other songs on Wire Mountain feature banjo, marimba, lap steel or mbira, instruments that rattle around in the relative space created by these sometimes spare arrangements.  Songs like "Gasconade" venture into the buzz or hum of an unidentifiable drone beneath Johnson's lyric.  A pair of instrumentals mark the aural poles of the sessions.  "Chimera" is an electric passage with guttural guitar and a haunting background ambiance, while the album closes on the brighter, more reassuring piano and percussion of  "(You Were) Just Barely You".  In between is the collection's most accessible cut, the melodic guitar and jazz-leaning chords of "To the Shepherd, To the Lion".

What seems exotic early on establishes itself as more familiar and purposeful with repeated listenings, thoughtful and rewarding work that takes its place alongside years of Will Johnson's other projects.  Like Molina and David Bazan and others with whom he's shared a groove, he maintains a mystery from record to record, while building a trust and an intimacy that bring us back with every new iteration.  Wire Mountain can be beautiful and chilling, with a wide-open allure of an artist who satisfies at every turn:  So when it comes time for our parting / Find the spirit and the force and the light / Let the shadows and moonlight still guide you / With a voice you can trust in the night.

- Avett Brothers, "Bang Bang" Closer Than Together  (American, Oct 4)
- Whitney, "Rhododendron" Forever Turned Around  (Secretly Canadian, 19)
- Pernice Brothers, "Skinny Jeanne" Spread the Feeling  (Ashmont, 19)
- Andrew Combs, "Dry Eyes" Ideal Man  (New West, Sep 20)
- Damien Jurado, "Arkansas" Saint Bartlett  (Secretly Canadian, 10)
- Joan Shelly, "The Sway" Like the River Loves the Sea  (No Quarter, 19)
- North Mississippi Allstars, "Mean Old World (feat. Jason Isbell & Duane Betts)" Up and Rolling  (New West, Oct 4)
- Ruston Kelly, "Screaming Infidelities (feat. Chris Carrabba)" Dirt Emo Vol. 1  (Rounder, Oct 11)  D
- Kenny Roby & 6 String Drag, "Red" Tired of Feelin' Guilty: 25 Years  (Schoolkids, Sep 27)  D
- Ana Egge, "Hurt a Little" Is It the Kiss  (StorySound, 19)
- The Deer, "Move To Girls" Do No Harm  (Keeled Scales, Nov 1)  D
- Nathan Salsburg, "New Bold Ruler's Joy" Affirmed  (No Quarter, 11)
- Sammy Kay, "Orange Swirl" civil/WAR  (Kay, Oct 11)  D
- Lillie Mae, "Some Gamble" Other Girls  (Third Man, 19)
- Chris Knight, "Almost Daylight" Almost Daylight  (Drifters Church, Oct 11)
- Replacements, "Alex Chilton (live)" Dead Man's Pop  (Warner, Sep 27)
- Charlie Worsham, "I Hope I'm Stoned (When Jesus Takes Me Home)" single  (Warner, 19)  D
- Neal Casal, "Real Country Dark" Leaving Traces: Songs 1994-2004  (Fargo, 04)
- Highwomen, "Old Soul" Highwomen  (Elektra, 19)
- Charley Crockett, "9 Lb Hammer" The Valley  (Son of Davy, Sep 20)
- Pieta Brown, "Bring Me" Freeway  (Righteous Babe, Sep 20)
- Daniel Norgren, "I'm a Welder" Buck  (Superpuma, 13)
- Paul Cauthen, "Lay Me Down" Room 41  (Lightning Rod, 19)
- Michaela Anne, "I'm Not the Fire" Desert Dove  (Yep Roc, Sep 27)
- Vincent Neil Emerson, "7 Come 11" Fried Chicken & Evil Women  (la Honda, Sep 13)
- Elliott BROOD, "Whiskey Bottle" Brighter Side: 25th Anniversary Tribute to Uncle Tupelo's No Depression  (Reimagine, 2015)
- Tom VandenAvond, "A Good Saloon" Common Law  (Hillgrass Bluebilly, 19)
- Cody Jinks, "Same Kind of Crazy As Me" After the Fire  (Late August, Oct 11)
- Kill County, "Everything Must Die" Everything Must Die  (573668, 19)
- Captain Beefheart, "Call On Me" Safe As Milk  (Buddha, 67)


It came to my attention this week that we're nearing what's considered by most the end of the Twenty-teens decade.  This means we'll soon be putting a list together of our choices for favorite records of the 2010's.  This will be on top of our usual year-end lists for favorite songs and albums of 2019.

This week we added a date for the forthcoming Hailey Whitters EP.  The Days will see the light of day on September 13, followed by a full-length next year.  Expect a self-titled EP the following week from Oxford, Mississippi's Kate Teague.  Kenny Roby of 6 String Drag was fixing to enter the studio with Neal Casal at the helm for a new solo work.  Of course, in light of Casal's sudden passing those plan will likely be reworked.  In the meantime, September 27 will bring us a nice retrospective on Schoolkids Records: Tired of Feelin' Guilty: 25 Years of Kenny Roby & 6 String Drag.  Sofaburn Records is the new home of Kentucky's Daniel Martin Moore.  His Never Look Away is slotted for the beginning of Punkin' Month.  Rustin Kelly has announced a promising covers EP, Dirt Emo Vol. 1, due wherever music matters on October 11.  Kelly's new project will features his take on stuff originally by Blink-182, My Chemical Romance, Dashboard Confessional and more.  The great Keeled Scales label has chosen November 1 as the date for their first LP from The Deer, Do No Harm.  Save some space on the shelves that same day for the next record from Micky & the Motorcars.  Low Anthem has strayed quite a bit since the release of Oh My God Charlie Darwin, but they'll be celebrating the album's 10th Anniversary with a repackaging in November.  Also added to this week's Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster are 2020 promises from Tami Neilson, Chickaboom, and American Aquarium, Lamentations.  You'll see just about everything that's been issued this year in our kind of music by clicking on the link.

ROUTES-casts from 2019 have been removed; subscribe to our Spotify page to keep up with all our new playlists!

ROUTES & BRANCHES 
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
September 1, 2019
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

It's forecast to reach 97 damn degrees this afternoon here in Colorado's Front Range (home of Routes & Branches).  But in my heart it's "almost Fall" - once we reach the shores of September, I gladly shut the door on Summer.  Yesterday I caught myself considering a list of my favorite songs that have reached the pop radio charts in 2019.  Then I realized we still have three months of music to go.  But since I'm a List Making Fool, here are my five favorite records from the past four weeks of hot hot heat (in order of appearance):

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT AUGUST?!!
Tyler Childers, Country Squire  (Hickman Holler, Aug 2)
Mike & the Moonpies, Cheap Silver & Solid Country Gold  (Prairie Rose, Aug 2)
Jason Hawk Harris, Love & the Dark  (Bloodshot, Aug 23)
Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, Take Heart Take Care  (Big Legal Mess, Aug 30)
Joan Shelley, Like the River Loves the Sea  (No Quarter, Aug 30)

Time to drag out my sweaters (as the world burns).

I do this from time to time;  I check on social media to see what's up with favorite artists who I haven't heard from in awhile, just to see if there's anything in the works.  Last week I checked up on Austin's Kill County, only to find that they'd dropped a full-length album just the previous week.  I first discovered their deep grained strain of country-grass in 2013, when their Dust in Wire appeared on my favorites list.  2015's Broken Glass In the Sun tightened things up just a bit with regards to writing and production.  The band, fronted by Josh James and Ringo, had called Nebraska home during those years, even as members spread to different regions of the country (or, in one case, different hemispheres).  Their center of operations seems to have shifted south to Texas for Everything Must Die, though Kill County remain one of the best kept secrets in our kind of music.

The album's title is ripped from its most hell-bent cut, a boot stomping acknowledgement of the futility of the blue collar life: Everything must die / And boy you ain't looking right.  It's the sort of nitro-driven 'grass that's just the thing to scratch an itch, country and punk shoulder-to-bony shoulder as fiddle, banjo, guitar and drums jostle for the listener's attention.  Kill County aren't the only band that favors an alt qualifier by way of introduction, though they write and play with such an apparent authenticity that they might as well be.

As the title might suggest, Everything Must Die isn't a feelgood CD.  As one song declares, The whole damn world is crashing down / Right before my eyes.  Kill County don't outright blame the president, the economy or the patriarchy, though "A Little More Blood" follows some of the fault down to the country's perennial state of war.  Credit much of the act's effectiveness to their direct approach, playing an unadorned strain of country propelled by a punk spirit and a songwriter's dedication to lyrics that matter.  While we were sleeping they built a beast / Out of fire, gears and skin, Josh sings.

The two frontmen alternate vocals, and share in an unexpectedly tight harmony even as you'd be hard pressed to find two singers with more divergent styles.  Josh James' deep throaty growl weaves with Ringo's more traditional high country croon; both are remarkably expressive. "Angel of Mercy" lays a sweet pedal steel line atop Ringo's vocal, suspicious of the motives that drive our engines and drown out the still small voice of peace and quiet:  So get me out of this town / Get me out of this country / Let me lay here on this floor just as quiet as a wing / I'm sick of the way / We worship violence and fame.

It's this need for peace and a sense of betrayal that lies beneath much of Everything Must Die.  Kill County are a deceptively thoughtful bunch, entirely grounded in the world of the working class, but unafraid to drop some French existentialism on "Sartre's Blues".  The downtempo tune begins with Josh remarking There's fruit flies in the kitchen fucking up all my food, but ends at the bookshelf:  I read a book on being and existential dread / If we're all just suffering for nothing babe then why get out of bed ... This half-blind Frenchman's getting to me.  Not necessarily the stuff to bump at your next backyard barbecue.  Nevertheless, there's not a drop of pretension or detachment to the new collection.  Kill County's genuine deep blacks and blues sweat from every pore and ring from every banjo, dobro and guitar string.

Appropriately, Everything Must Die is generally a quieter album, its songs more reflective and probably more personal than much of the outfit's earlier work.  Any social commentary is couched in the travails of everyday existence.  Interspersed with those heavier cuts are some genuinely pretty sounds.  See especially "Oblivion Blues".  Josh closes the CD letting the piano and fiddle shine through, and "Coyote Trail" is a devastating but beautiful acoustic country ballad.  There's also some heartfelt sentiment on the session, songs like "Wolves" that recognize how these bad times can seep down into our homes and the relationships we rely on for strength and support:  If only my arms could keep you from harm / And my hands keep the wolves from the door.  The uptempo "Lovers Without Love" plays like an early Dwight Yoakam track, a Bakersfield inspired racket the finds a heart of gold on the way home from the bars: I used to need things no good man should need / But I can't regret one single misstep / Because every drunken one led me onto you.

As bleak as Kill County's fifth album can be, Ringo and Josh James deliver hope the way we like it here at R&B.  That's through smart, sturdily-built songs that speak honestly about how things are.  There's some real redemption, some small victory in music that matters, even when the message is that we'll try again tomorrow:  I'm gonna follow my heart / Straight back to bed / And try again in the afternoon / When I ain't shaking so bad.


- McCarthy Trenching, "Barroom and I (Sure Miss You)" Fresh Blood and Piano  (McCarthy, 19)
^ Kill County, "Lovers Without Love" Everything Must Die  (573668 Records, 19)
- Jesse Malin, "Dead On (feat. Lucinda Williams)" Sunset Kids  (Wicked Cool, 19)
- Pernice Brothers, "Mint Condition" Spread the Feeling  (Ashmont, Sep 6)  D
- Red House Painters, "Michigan" Old Ramon  (Sub Pop, 01)
- First Aid Kit, "Random Rules" single  (Columbia, 19)
- Ags Connolly, "Wrong Again (You Lose a Life)" Wrong Again  (Finstock, Nov 1)  D
- Eilen Jewell, "Miles to Go" Gypsy  (Signature Sounds, 19)
- Whiskey Myers, "Houston County Sky" Whiskey Myers  (Wiggy Thump, Sep 27)
- Jon Dee Graham, "Mother Blues" Messenger: Tribute to Ray Wylie Hubbard  (Eight 30, 19)
- Joan Shelley, "The Fading" Like the River Loves the Sea  (No Quarter, 19)
- Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, "Plenty Wonder" Take Heart Take Care  (Big Legal Mess, 19)
- Iron & Wine, "Trapeze Swinger" Around the Well  (Sub Pop, 09)
- John Calvin Abney, "Maybe Happy" Safe Passage  (Black Mesa, Sep 27)
- Paul Cauthen, "Prayed for Rain" Room 41  (Lightning Rod, Sep 6)'
- Jason Hawk Harris, "Giving In" Love & the Dark  (Bloodshot, 19)
- Matthew Ryan, "Are You the Matador" Fallen Ash & Embers  (Ryan, Oct 4)  D
- Patty Griffin, "Ruby's Arms" Come On Up To the House: Women Sing Waits  (Dualtone, Nov 22)
- Will Johnson, "Necessitarianism (Fred Merkle's Blues)" Wire Mountain  (Keeled Scales, Sep 27)
- Amy LaVere, "Shipbuilding" Painting Blue  (Nine Mile, 19)
- Tom VandenAvond, "Big Two Hearted River" Common Law  (Hillgrass Bluebilly, 19)  D
- My Morning Jacket, "Old Sept Blues" Tennessee Fire: 20th Anniversary  (Darla, 19)
- Larry & His Flask, "Full Time Job (Do What You Want) (demo)" Everything Besides  (Xtra Mile, 19)
- Sam Baker, "Waves (live)" Horses and Stars  (Baker, 19)
- Caleb Caudle, "Howlin' At the Moon" single  (Caudle, 19)  D
- Felice Brothers, "Hey Hey Revolver" Tonight at the Arizona  (Loose, 07)
- Vetiver, "To Who Knows Where" Up On High  (Mama Bird, Nov 1)  D
- Old Crow Medicine Show, "Methamphetamine (live)" Live at the Ryman  (OCMS, Oct 4)  D
- Dan Auerbach, "Street Walkin'" Keep It Hid  (Nonesuch, 09)
- Candi Staton, "He Called Me Baby" Stand By Your Man  (Parlophone, 71)


Speaking of coming across surprise projects from favorite artists, looks like Tom VandenAvond released Common Law in July without telling me.  When October comes, expect a new EP from Matthew Ryan, Fallen Ash & Embers.  I don't know that we've ever covered David Newbould's solo stuff, but I'm sure he's played on several records we have supported over the years.  We'll try to rectify that when Newbould issues Sin & Redemption on October 18.  British honky tonk master Ags Connolly was virtually unknown when we started sharing stuff from his last CD.  He'll continue his stateside onslaught with Wrong Again on the first of November.  That very same day we'll welcome another in a series of Andy Cabic's remarkably consistent Vetiver projects, Up On High will appear on Mama Bird Records.  Finally, while there's been no date mentioned yet, we're happy to add Caleb Caudle to our short list of 2020 projects on the musical horizon.  You can find out so much more just by clicking A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster.