featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
March 18, 2021
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
The importance of place in our kind of music cannot be overstated. While there are notable exceptions, records that are set to tape in Memphis will often feature that trademark Stax Southern soul sound. Artists will decamp for a studio in Northern California in hopes that the locale will inspire them to create music with that region's legendary folk-pop vibe. Or they might move from New York to Dripping Springs, Texas. They might build a studio in their backyard, doors open wide to the nature and spirit of the Texas Hill Country.
That's Israel Nash, a restless creative who has launched Topaz from his own Plum Creek Sound. Originally from Missouri, he began his recording career with a pair of strong americana/alt.country albums, 2009's New York Town and Barn Doors & Concrete Floors two years later. The sessions featured standout songs such as "You Were Right" and "Drown", and introduced Nash's unique delivery that set him apart from countless other singer-songwriters. Relocated to Texas, Rain Plans (13) and Silver Season (15) began to add elements of rock and psychedelia to his roots blend, an evolution that bore fruit with the release of 2018's ambitious Lifted. Songs like "Sweet Springs" presented Israel Nash as a truly original artist, deeply rooted in the natural environs while unafraid to take daring musical and existential departures almost unforeseen in americana.
The seeds of Topaz were cast with a 2020 5-tune EP that served as a promissory note for this full-length follow-up. Where Lifted lifted the roof from his Dripping Springs studio with a fully orchestrated, pop-informed approach, Nash's new collection finds its muse in a more soulful and organic expression, a steady-rolling train of sound that is familiar yet all his own. My heart is a canyon he sings on "Canyonheart", reverb and echo suggesting a generous and expansive spirit. The natural world is invoked throughout Topaz, beckoning us to this sweet by and by with harmonica and arcing pedal steel. The same Hill Country sun shines through "Southern Coasts", with its bass pulse and abiding synth bed that recall the early days of My Morning Jacket.
What's new to Israel Nash's studio are the horns and the soul that pervade pieces like "Down In the Country". A buzzsaw guitar cuts through the thick, bluesy session, backing vocals complimenting the horns. The song reflects another prevailing theme on Nash's 6th LP, speaking to the dividing lines that are becoming increasingly impermeable throughout our communities: How long will ol' Sam let it slide / Not gonna let it happen twice. With its heralding trumpets, "Dividing Lines" bemoans what's come between us, its slow soulful simmer rising to a boil: Relax / I can't find a way to get back to the place that we had / They're stuck inside their old ways / And don't you know it's driving me crazy.
A solo piano rendition of that song was uploaded recently, stripping back the trappings to reveal the passionate conviction in Nash's vocals. Common comparisons to Neil Young acknowledge the keening quality to his delivery, but fail to appreciate the soul and range that inhabit his singing. "Stay" suggests a new lane for Nathaniel Rateliff, a stirring country-soul number that emotes perfectly: Take the leap / The faithful jump / Don't look down below / Before you fall from high above / Right into my healing love. It's a highwater moment for Israel Nash's artistry.
Topaz is rich in place - not the Big Name music destinations we're familiar with, as much as the rural Dripping Springs that Israel Nash calls home. "Sutherland Springs" is his very personal response to the church shooting that hit too close to home, taking a nationally relevant issue and transforming it into a personally resonant event. When Nash opens the doors of his quonset hut studios, he's fostering a dialog between the artist and his world, breathing in the surrounding nature, exhaling poetry. Taking our news and pushing it through his soundboard, making a space for the natural world. And at the heart of it all is Israel Nash's unique creative vision, an expression that simply gets more individual and more rewarding with every record.
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Spring awaits mere days hence, and with it the promise of new records on A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster. Whitehorse, the Canadian duo of Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, are under the wire with a new collection this week. Modern Love lands on shelves wherever music matters Friday, March 19 on Six Shooter Records. April 16, Gospelbeach delivers a 5-cut EP of lost bubble gum and glam covers. On the Curation label, Jam Jam includes tracks originally recorded by The Rhinos, Paul Revere and more. Cody Jinks reportedly has a couple projects in the works. First, Adobe Sessions Unplugged (Late August, May 7)boasts unadorned takes on songs from his 2015 classic. There are few sounds so sublime to my ears as Kurt Wagner's Lambchop. For May 21st's Showtunes, the idiosyncratic singer is joined by Gayngs, Yo La Tengo and more. Finally, both Marisa Anderson and William Tyler are among the generation's foremost guitarists. They'll collaborate on Lost Futures, due August 27 on Thrill Jockey.
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