ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
July 3, 2021
Scott Foley, purveyor of liberty
I will rarely use a cover shot for the image that accompanies an Episode each week (or so). Instead I tend to borrow something from the artist's social media or their promotor's site. As a longtime bookseller and librarian, I recognize that you really can't judge a book or record by its cover, though the right cover can make you pick it up. Andrew Bryant's A Meaningful Connection arrives with such a striking image that I can't help but use it here. A Perfectly Adequate Middle Aged Man (that's Bryant) stares down the camera from bed, alongside a woman who reaches for him (that's Bryant's wife), his phone held between him and the world. Credit Paul Gandy for this impactful glimpse.
From his home in Oxford, Mississippi, the once-and-future Water Liar has cobbled together a worthy series of solo recordings. We began following Bryant with 2017's Ain't It Like the Cosmos, which led to last year's Sentimental Noises. Both followed the artist's deep dives into his psyche, coming to terms with an inheritance from his conservative Christian childhood. Songs favor heavy guitars and heavier subjects, lyrically literary like Will Johnson. Andrew Bryant makes the kind of music that merits liner notes from Brooklyn noir writer William Boyle.
A Meaningful Connection is a pandemic-themed collection only insofar as it was produced during The Plague Year. But in a very good piece written on the Ties That Bind Us blog Bryant addresses how the circumstances surrounding the virus set the stage for doing work on his own sobriety. That process is one of the pervasive themes on Connection. One of the session's most quietly beautiful tracks, "Drink My Pain Away" speaks to how the spectre of alcoholism is never vanquished, never predictable. Atop a barely brushed acoustic guitar and the suggestion of strings, Bryant stands amidst boxes laden with his possessions during an especially challenging moment: I want to drink my pain away / For the first time in two months today ... I've gotta find another song to sing.
That's a second thread that runs through the new collection: The creative life, especially as it tangles with Bryant's sobriety. I always thought that if I stopped drinking, I wouldn't be able to write songs anymore, he commented in that interview. But songs like "Private Window" attest that the demons of the creative life are sloppy and pervasive. With its watery pedal steel and atmospheric accompaniment, "Birmingham" takes place on the road between shows, finding Bryant seeking clarity: All the merch is gone but I still feel so alone. The concert, the moment of connection from which listeners can derive so much meaning, leaves the artist questioning his side of the bargain: There has to be some story I haven't told yet / I sing all my songs and feel them / Staring at the back of my eyelids / And we call this a meaningful connection.
The inner dialogue reaches a moment of catharsis and clarity in "Fight". The blunt, repetitive guitar builds only gradually as Bryant accepts the challenge of a struggle for contentment: I want to be like Christ, he speaks, But I don't want to die. There are a handful of such little victories on A Meaningful Connection, even if it's just the recognition that something needs to change.
A Meaningful Connection is musically as extroverted a record as we've heard from Andrew Bryant. Tracks like "Spiritual Genocide" feature more complete, melodic arrangements even as nearly everything we hear on the album is produced by Bryant himself. The slicing guitar of "Reality Winner" or the melodic lines of "Lying On the Road" reach outward, opening to the listener instead of giving listeners the sense that we're eavesdropping on the artist's internal dialogue. There is also a sardonic humor here, a cultural commentary that might recall Father John Misty. "Private Window" begins with a sharp inhale of breath before launching the initial jab: Folk singers on Twitter / You know they've got all the answers. Buzzsaw guitars accompany the self-referential criticism about our society's perennial tether to technology: You can eat from the tree of the god / That keeps you up at night.
As I've noted on previous reviews of Andrew Bryant CDs, it's not my job to psychoanalyze an artist. That can be a challenge with such a confessional writer (Bryant has acknowledged his flirtation with writing a memoir). On its own merits, A Meaningful Connection pairs the blunt guitar force of Centro-Matic with the moon-haunted artistry of Jason Molina (about whom Bryant has written movingly). These new sessions succeed where it matters most - at the intersection of the artist's intention and the listener's appreciation. Bryant has indicated that some of the songs he's written since the new album are more character-driven, stories that reach beyond his own.
These factors coalesce most readily in "Truth Ain't Hard To Find": The drinking, the battle for artistic integrity, the longing for connection. I want to die like I want a job, he sings. I just ain't got time for it. Nevertheless, we find quite a lot in common with the everyman on the album jacket, the guy tangled in sheets alongside his wife, in the glow his cellphone, what he calls Just some shitty midlife crisis / That would bore even the steadiest crowd. Call it a very meaningful connection.
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Precisely halfway through the year, last week we celebrated the stuff that's gotten us this far, our favorite records for 2021. Since R&B is all about looking forward, let's spend some digital ink on albums on the horizon that we're looking forward to in the weeks and months to come. We'll choose ten promising releases, in order of scheduled appearance:
- John R Miller, Depreciated (Rounder, Jul 16)
- Yola, Stand For Myself (Easy Eye, Jul 30)
- Charlie Parr, Last of the Better Days Ahead (Smithsonian, Jul 30)
- Son Volt, Electro Melodier (Transmit Sound, Jul 30)
- Anderson East, Maybe We Never Die (Elektra, Aug 20)
- Sierra Ferrell, Long Time Coming (Rounder, Aug 20)
- Tre Burt, You Yeah You (Oh Boy, Aug 27)
- Heartless Bastards, A Beautiful Life (Sweet Unknown, Sep 10)
- Felice Brothers, From Dreams to Dust (Yep Roc, Sep 17)
- Scott Hirsch, Windless Day (Soundly, Oct 8)
You can always see a complete accounting of forthcoming records at A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster. This week's adds include Deer Tick's Live From Fort Adams. The set was recorded for last year's virtual-only Newport Folk Fest, and will be available July 30. The Queen of Rockabilly, Wanda Jackson has selected an August 20 release date for her final album. Encore was recorded alongside Joan Jett, and will hit shelves courtesy of the Big Machine label. Brooklyn guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn announces the follow-up to 2019's Unseen In Between. Other You is due August 27 on Matador Records. Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon's Big Red Machine has reconvened for How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last (37d03d, August 27). The collection features contributions from Anais Mitchell, Taylor Swift, Fleet Foxes and more. Finally, Ross Adams is backed by 400 Unit on Escaping Southern Heat. The September 10 release is produced by Jimbo Mathus.
And this week only we revert back to our longtime practice of publishing our review together with our ROUTES-cast playlist.
- Cedric Burnside, "Get Down" I Be Trying (Single Lock, 21)
- Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers, "Waiting On Love" Loved Wild Lost (Little Sur, 15)
- Flatland Cavalry, "Meantime (feat. Hailey Whitters)" Welcome to Countryland (Flatland, 21)
- David Ferguson, "Boats to Build" Nashville No More (Fat Possum, Sep 3)
- Glossary, "These City Lights Shine" How We Handle Our Midnights (Young Buffalo, 09)
- Yola, "Starlight" Stand For Myself (Easy Eye, Jul 30)
- Them Coulee Boys, "Just Friends" Namesake (TCB, Aug 6)
- Woods, "Nickels & Dimes" More Strange (Woodsist, Jul 23)
- Big Thief, "Cattails" UFOF (4AD, 19)
- Deer Tick, "If She Could Only See Me Now (live)" Live From Fort Adams (Deer Tick, Jul 30) D
- Drew Beskin, "Torn & Blue" Problematic For the People (Super Canoe, 21)
- Steve Gunn, "Other You" Other You (Matador, Aug 27) D
- Molly Burch, "Took a Minute" Romantic Images (Captured Tracks, Jul 23)
- John Murry, "Time & a Rifle" Stars Are God's Bullet Holes (Submarine Cat, 21)
- Jason Molina, "Hold On Magnolia (live)" Live at La Chapelle (Secretly Canadian, 20)
- Big Red Machine, "Latter Days (feat. Anais Mitchell)" How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last (37d03d, Aug 27) D
- Pines at Night, "Song For a Hard Year (feat. Matthew Ryan)" single (Hearts & Smarts, 21) D
- KC Jones, "I've Got Time" Queen of the In Between (Jones, 21)
- Jeff Tweedy, "For You (I'd Do Anything)" May the Circle Remain Unbroken (Light in the Attic, Jul 17)
- RF Shannon, "Dublin, TX" single (Keeled Scales, 21) D
- Zach Aaron, "Gear Jammer and Hay Farmer" single (Aaron, 21) D
- Lucy Rose, "Gamble" Like I Used To (Sony, 12)
- Mike & the Moonpies, "Paycheck to Paycheck" single (Prairie Rose, 21) D
- Wanda Jackson, "It Keeps Right On a Hurtin'" Encore (Big Machine, Aug 20) D
- Jason Isbell, "Sad But True" Metallica Blacklist (Blackened, Sep 10) D
- Lucinda Williams, "Minneapolis" World Without Tears (UMG, 03)
- Elijah Ocean, "Thirty-five" Born Blue (Ocean, Aug 13) D
- Kelly Pardekooper, "Like a Rose" single (Pardekooper, 21) D
- Jesse Daniel, "Looking Back" Beyond These Walls (Soundly, Jul 30)
- Ophelias, "Neil Young On High (feat. Julien Baker)" Crocus (Joyful Noise, Sep 24) D
To enjoy our weekly Spotify ROUTES-cast, just open Spotify and search for "routesandbranches" to access this most recent playlist, as well as many others from past months. Or click here for a preview:
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