ANDREW BRYANT - PRODiGAL

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

October 29, 2023

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

I raised my hood against the blowing snow before dawn, as my running shoes crunched into three or four inches of fresh powder. It had arrived about ten days later than Denver's typical first snowfall, ushered in by a blast of arctic wind even before the last leaves had fallen. It's a time of year that rewards introversion and reflection, the perfect mindset for year-end wrap-ups. This marks the year's final monthly accounting, as we'll be laying out our 2023 favorites throughout December: 

Year in Americana - Dec 3

Favorite Songs - Dec 10

Christmas Christmas - Dec 17

Favorite Albums - Dec 24

Covers - Dec 31

I don't wear headphones during my early morning runs, though I'm frequently thinking about music. My soundtrack is my own breathing, and the steady rhythm of my feet on pavement (or snow, as the case may be). During my less ambitious moments, however, in the car or at my desk, music is my constant companion, especially our weekly Spotify ROUTES-casts. Following are the tunes that have provided my company as Fall-ish becomes kinda-Winter. 

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT OCTOBER?!!

1. Jeffrey Martin, "Red Station Wagon" Thank God We Left the Garden  (Fluff & Gravy, Nov 3)

2. Mali Velasquez, "Medicine" I'm Green  (Acrophase, Oct 13)

3. Chris Stapleton, "It Takes a Woman" Higher  (Mercury, Nov 10)

4. Roadside Graves, "We're Not Here" I Won't Cry Alone  (Don Giovanni, Nov 10)

5. Andrew Bryant, "Gravy" Prodigal  (Sentimental Noises, Nov 3)

6. Damien Jurado, "St Gregory Hotel" Motorcycle Madness  (Maraqopa, Oct 20)

7. Cory Hanson, "Western Cum" single  (Drag City, Oct 27)

8. Uncle Lucius, "Civilized Anxiety" Like It's the Last One Left  (Boo Clap, Dec 8)

9. Molly Parden, "Dandy Blend" Sacramented  (Parden, Oct 13)

10. Pert Near Sandstone, "Clouds Are Gathering" Waiting Days  (PNS, Oct 20)

No dedicated write-ups on these this month. Instead, we'll provide a review for one of the year's most striking records. 

At one point in Present Tense: Andrew Bryant and the Making of Prodigal, midway through picking apart an acoustic track from his new record, the songwriter asks, Am I a perfectionist? The hour long doc, produced by Gerard Matthews of 19Ninety Films, addresses Bryant's question by portraying him in studio, surrounded by a spectacular band with whom he creates the album of his career. While Prodigal (Sentimental Noises, Nov 3) stands on its own merit, the video provides a remarkable account of the inspiration, collaboration, and the emotional investment that can result in such an artistic triumph. 

Andrew Bryant wasn't in need of salvation or career redirection. Since his days with the seminal Water Liars, his solo output has been exceptional, from 2015's This Is the Life through 2017's terrific Ain't It Like the Cosmos, 2020's Sentimental Noises and '21s Meaningful Connection. While he is by no means above collaboration, each record is largely the product of Bryant as an instrumentalist and a producer. Bruce Watson, who serves as producer for Prodigal, mentions in the doc that Bryant delivered his new songs as home recordings, intended as a close-to-final product. At his Delta-Sonic Sound Studios in Memphis, the producer heard more, and gathered his collaborators to flesh out the sessions with Bryant: The way I produce is I try to surround myself with the best possible musicians at my disposal, and then I just kinda give them enough rope not to hang themselves but to actually do something very good. 

The strength and vision of this outfit can be heard on "Gravy", from Will Sexton's fierce fuzz guitar to Rick Steff's essential piano, Alex Greene's organ, Mark Edgar Stuart's bass and Will McCarley's empathetic drumming. Add the punch of Memphis horns and Andrew Bryant's expressive delivery, his visionary lyrics: That night in the dark / I watch my mother take out the dove's heart / And cover it with gravy / In a skillet alone at the stove. Prodigal is a document of place and belonging, following Bryant down the roads of his rural Mississippi birthplace, the wide-open vistas of which define the accompanying film. In one especially poignant scene, the songwriter enters the open doors of an abandoned, dilapidated Baptist church. Beneath sagging ceilings and alongside a dusty, broken piano, he sings "Shiloh". Languid guitars peal across the track above McCarley's steady drumming, finally grounding and erupting in an incandescent solo. Bryant offers a vision from his childhood: I smell the coffee and the Christmas tree / Big star is falling somewhere over Galilee / I wrap my body in her softest quilt / Touch my hair and hide my face. 

These moments of sharp sensory recollect crowd Andrew Bryant's new songs, surfacing like dreams that can seem mythical. He watches on "Trampoline" as an unnamed companion takes flight, the propulsive track set aloft on soaring strings: Then I saw Christ hanging out in the garden / Picking ripe tomatoes / He took my hand in his hand and let me into the house / He made me a sandwich and asked if I was thirsty. He watches a man with admiration, probably his father, on "Certainty", a song that swells with melancholy: I know you know a thing or two / About how everything works / And I wish I had / How I wish I had / Your certainty. In Present Tense, he remarks on the presence of the past on Prodigal, how his songs have tended to dwell on the here and now: Throughout making this record I learned that the past is still with me ... because all of those things are who I am. 

The Prodigal sessions are rich with the language of the church, a recurring entity in Bryant's childhood with which he seeks to make some kind of peace. Reportedly written from his mother's perspective, "Tongues" features punching horns and pulsing bass, gathering urgency as it progresses: Everybody lives and everybody dies / No matter what we say / No matter how we pray. The title cut adds banjo to a pastoral setting: Brother Danny was a fisher of men / He cast his jigs across the Arkansas sands / Hooked a line on his finger and he played in the band / Every Sunday and we said amen. Solemn, acoustic folk songs such as "Wind" and "Love" provide almost hymnlike moments of clarity, though Bryant has no answers, and offers no resolution. He seems to encounter some fleeting grace at the intersection of reckoning and rapture, assembling pieces of family, place, and inheritance. Am I a son of this place, or am I not, he asks. In mythology, meaning must not only coexist alongside mystery, they are dependent upon one another. 

Andrew Bryant's apparent decision to loosen his grasp on the birth of Prodigal has vested the collection with life heretofore unheard in his earlier catalogue. It is a phenomenal sounding record, with special praise due Sexton, Steff and McCarley. The relative freedom that he achieves by sharing his process of creation with Bruce Wagner and his once-in-a-lifetime band has given Bryant room to expand into his still very personal muse, making this new album the most natural, dare we say the most freewheeling of his career. 

- Adam Remnant, "Sunrise At the Sunset Motel" single  (Coiled Myth, 23)  D

- Willy Tea Taylor & Fellership, "The Nurse (ft Anna Tivel)" Great Western Hangover  (Blackwing, 23)

- Martha Scanlon & Jon Neufeld, "XO" single  (Jealous Butcher, 23)  D

- John Craigie, "Where It's From (ft TK & the Holy Know-Nothings)" single  (Craigie, 23)  D

- Maybel, "Splinters" Gloam  (Idee Fixe, 23)

- Night Beds, "Knoxville" single  (Arkansas Blues, 23)  D

- Sun June, "Moon Ahead" Bad Dream Jaguar  (Run For Cover, 23)

- Austin Lucas, "Just a Girl" single  (GrindEthos, 23)  D

- Israel Nash, "Going Back" Ozarker  (Desert Folklore, 23)

- Cory Hanson, "Can't Keep My Eyes Open" single  (Drag City, 23)  

- Old Heavy Hands, "All the Time In the World" Small Fires  (Spitting Daggers, Jan 19)

- Harvest Thieves, "Avenue A" As the Sparks Fly Upward  (Harvest Thieves, 23)

- Flatland Cavalry, "New American Dream" Wandering Star  (Interscope, 23)

- Joshua Ray Walker, "Outlaw (live)" I Opened For the Killers and All I Got Was Appendicitis EP  (JRW, 23)  D

- Cale Tyson, "Hope You're Hungover" single  (Tyson, 23)  D

- Jon Snodgrass, "Go" Let the Bad Times Roll: Tribute to the Replacements  (Creep, 23)  D

- New Pornographers, "Firework In the Falling Snow (acoustic version ft Aimee Mann)" single  (Merge, 23)  D

- Cat Power, "Like a Rolling Stone" Sings Dylan: 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert  (Domino, Nov 10)

- Grandaddy, "Watercooler" Blu Wav  (Dangerbird, Feb 16)  D

- Angie McMahon, "Divine Fault Line" Light Dark Light Again  (Gracie, 23)

- Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, "Junk Drawer Heart" Dancing On the Edge  (Sophomore Lounge, 23)  D

- Third Mind, "Little Bit of Rain" Third Mind 2  (Yep Roc, 23)

- Old Californio, "Old Kings Road" Metaterranea  (Old Californio, 23)

- Adeem the Artist, "Fast Cars" single  (Four Quarters, 23)  D

- Dori Freeman, "Movie Screen" Do You Recall  (Blue Hens, Nov 17)

- Duff Thompson, "Bring It To You" Shadow People  (Mashed Potato, 23)

- Nora Jane Struthers, "Oh To Be Home" Back To Cast Iron  (Blue Pig, 23)

- Dead South, "Tiny Wooden Box" Chains & Stakes  (Six Shooter, Feb 9)  D

- Shakey Graves, "True Love Will Find You In the End (ft Jess Williamson)" Texas Wild  (Lower Colorado Record Authority, 23)

- Josiah and the Bonnevilles, "Kentucky Flood" Endurance  (Josiah, 23)  D

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iSRAEL NASH - OZARKER

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

October 22, 2023

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

There are few artists in our kind of music as recognizable as Israel Nash. His arrangements are typically thick with sound and reverb, both acoustic and electric, organic and cosmic, intimate and open to the heavens. Nash's familiar voice echoes across the tracks, craggy and textured as Neil Young but very capable of carrying a tune with soul. His brand of roots rock is commonly labeled heartland, even if it is well-rooted in the soil of his Dripping Springs, Texas studio. Israel Nash is too often likened to Petty, Seger, and Springsteen, but after seven studio projects he merits his own lane for his ambitious, swarming sonic stamp. 

That seventh project, Ozarker, is the first of four full albums (!) Israel Nash has promised over the coming months via his Desert Folklore label. While recent records like 2018's Lifted and 2021's Topaz were built around the people and places and nature surrounding his current Texas Hill Country environs, the new sessions find inspiration from stories of his family and fellow Ozarkers of his Missouri birthplace. The narrator for the reflective "Lost In America" is haunted by his wartime PTSD, spectres of which can't help but effect his family as well: My brother Ron looked up to me / Now he comes by the apartment twice a week / Just to make sure that I'm doing okay. The fiery "Going Back" channels the theatrical melodrama of Jim Steinman as the singer joins his brother for one last heist to cement their legend: I am old, but there was a day / They'd say my name from Laredo to Cheyenne. 

Ozarker is coproduced with veteran boardman and instrumentalist Kevin Ratterman, who has worked most notably with My Morning Jacket, New Multitudes, and Strand of Oaks, in addition to joining Israel Nash on Topaz. New songs like "Can't Stop" and "Travel On" epitomize the guitar- and drum-heavy arrangements on sessions that favor the anthemic and the soaring. The former percolates with 90s roots pop fervor, the singer spinning these wheels in his eagerness to leave the shadows of his hometown far behind: Not sure where it starts / But this is where it ends. Curtis Roush from Bright Light Social Hour fuels many of the album's incandescent guitars, with Patrick Hallahan serving on drums. "Travel On" is a passionately hopeful call to escape the pull of the city for kinder horizons. Synths amplify many of Ozarker's tracks, never taking center stage but widening Nash's arrangements. 

While reviewers have praised his music as cinematic, the storytelling nature of some of these new cuts adds more of a literary quality to Nash's vision. The ominous "Shadowland" paints a stark picture of life in the Ozarks: I'm living in a circle drawn for me long ago ... From Belton to Ozark / And back to the hill / Down at the bottom / And getting up still. The measured acoustic strum of "Pieces" adds to this picture: Feel a little lost in a place I know. Israel Nash's sound remains expansive, and most of his songs are still driven by yearning and heart, but these story elements root many songs in the daily struggles of real folk. 

Especially since his one-two punch of Rain Plans and Silver Season, this thread of hope and uplift has been Israel Nash's sonic calling card, even amidst the soulful horns and divisive politics of Topaz. The brightly-burning "Roman Candle" presents Nash at his hot and dangerous best, a melodic comet: Wolves may be circling me / But I don't let them in. With its shalala chorus and cosmic chiming electric guitars, the album's title track is another highwater moment, an infectious number that's Rambling and rugged / Rough and tumble as they come. 

You'll be able to track Israel Nash's stuff on his new Cosmic Eagle substack (it's like an IN social media profile on really good psychedelics, he promises). While listeners may identify certain of Petty's American heartland mythologies, or may spot signs of Springsteen's glory days, you'll also hear the urgency of War on Drugs and the soulful heart of Nathaniel Rateliff. Ozarker is more than the sum of its influences, however, and Nash leads his cohort into hard-won sonic territory that he's carved out in the years since his 2009 debut. In the end, Israel Nash simply sounds like Israel Nash. 

- Great Peacock, "Damn Good Feeling" single  (Great Peacock, 23)  D

- Jaime Wyatt, "Back To the Country" Feel Good  (New West, Nov 3)

^ Israel Nash, "Pieces" Ozarker  (Desert Folklore, 23)

- Duff Thompson, "Shapeshifter" Shadow People  (Mashed Potato, Oct 27)

- Zach Russell, "Milk & Honey" Where the Flowers Meet the Dew  (Carlboro, Dec 1)

- Sierra Ferrell, "Fox Hunt" single  (Rounder, 23)  D

- Pert Near Sandstone, "Clouds Are Gathering" Waiting Days  (PNS, 23)

- Wilder Blue, "Super Natural (ft Brent Cobb)" single  (Hill Country, 23)  D

- Willi Carlisle, "Critterland" Critterland  (Signature Sounds, Jan 26)  D

- Charley Crockett, "Killers Of the Flower Moon" single  (Son of Davy, 23)  D

- Abby Hamilton, "Lucky" #1 Zookeeper (of the San Diego Zoo)  (Blue Gown, 23)

- Vincent Neil Emerson, "Golden Crystal Kingdom" Golden Crystal Kingdom  (La Honda, Nov 10) 

- Cody Jinks, "Outlaws and Mustangs" single  (Late August, 23)  D

- Cactus Lee, "Southwestern Bell" Caravan  (Org Music, 23)

- Morgan Wade, "Halloween" single  (Ladylike, 23)  D

- Jon Dee Graham, "Lost In the Flood" Only Dead For a Little While  (Strolling Bones, Nov 10)

- Harvest Thieves, "Friendly Fire" As the Sparks Fly Upward  (Harvest Thieves, 23)

- Mightmare, "Killer Killer" single  (Kill Rock Stars, 23)  D

- Andrew Bryant, "Shiloh" Prodigal  (Sentimental Noises, Nov 3)

- Ha Ha Tonka, "Carry It Around" Blood Red Moon  (Ha Ha Tonka, 23)

- Nathan Graham, "Pride" Saint of Second Chances  (Pravda, 23)  D

- Holly Macve, "Suburban House (ft Lana Del Rey)" single  (Macve, 23)  D

- Michael Nau, "Shiftshaping" Accompany  (Karma Chief, Dec 8)  D

- Allison Russell, "Take Me To Church" Spotify Singles  (Fantasy, 23)  D

- Mali Velasquez, "Horse Trough" I'm Green  (Acrophase, 23)

- Jeff Tweedy, "Filled With Wonder Once Again" single  (Dead Oceans, 23)  D

- Molly Parden, "Weakest Link" Sacramented  (Parden, 23)

- Dylan LeBlanc, "Dust" Coyote  (ATO, 23)

- Sun June, "16 Riders" Bad Dream Jaguar  (Run For Cover, 23)

- Daniel Bachman, "Someone Straying Long Delaying" When the Roses Come Again  (Three Lobed, Nov 17)  

New this week on A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster: Iron & Wine's first full live recording is the companion piece to a forthcoming documentary chronicling a North Carolina concert performance. Who Can See Forever is set for a November 17 release date (Sub Pop). On the heels of last year's excellent Peculiar, Missouri, Willi Carlisle has announced a follow-up. Produced by Darrell Scott, Critterland will be the songwriter's first project for the Signature Sounds label, expected on shelves January 26. The Canadian alt.bluegrass outfit Dead South ventured to Mexico City to record their new album. Chains & Stakes arrives February 9th courtesy of the Six Shooter label. A one-time member of Prison Book Club with William Matheny, John R Miller, and Adam Meisterhans, Tucker Riggleman will be sharing a new collection with his Cheap Dates band. February 17 is the planned date for Restless Spirit. Finally, Corb Lund's next record will be dedicated to Ian Tyson. The all-acoustic El Viejo will appear via New West Records on February 23. 

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ABBY HAMiLTON - #1 ZOOKEEPER (OF the SAN DiEGO ZOO)

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

October 15, 2023

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Music lovers play music throughout their day, whether through headphones or out speakers. My own listening is almost always dictated by my writing. I engage in very little extracurricular listening. Climbing into my car for any amount of time, I'll typically line up a new album I need to preview, or I'll stream the week's ROUTES-cast. You should do the same. 

In general, we play music for a range of reasons. We select something in order to create a mood, or to change our mood. We might make a selection to confirm something we're feeling, or we might turn to music to help us through a difficult time. We might call that music as best friend, which explains at least in part the popularity of Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo. It's never this cut-and-dried, but it's a worthwhile theory. 

I go to Nicholasville to pass the time / And go sit in the park / Took myself one of those depressive drives / It got pretty dark / Some kid was out there playing guitar / Singing 'If I Needed You' / And it hit me / All my favorite bands were the ones you made me listen to / Now I'm wondering who you're sleeping with / Thought starts and it doesn't quit / And I let it take me all the way down / Self-sabotage until I drown

It's one of the year's best lyrics, courtesy of Kentucky's Abby Hamilton and the title track to her debut full-length, #1 Zookeeper (of the San Diego Zoo). It's a song we could cite at length here, delivered over a modern electric pulse, coupled with an insistent electric guitar buzz, Hamilton's open-throated vocal soaring through her chorus. It's a voice we've met little-by-little over the past couple years as the songwriter released her 2017 Broke Girl EP, followed by 2020's Afraid of the Dark EP, and last year's EP that showcased those songs in a live setting. Memorable songs like "Change Things" and "Trailer Park Queen" set the stage for Hamilton's full-scale debut. 

Per Abby Hamilton, the thesis of Zookeeper is exploring the worlds we create to cope with the world we are in. If the songs of Lydia Loveless present these coping mechanisms as the forces of which our disfunctions are composed, Hamilton chooses a gentler, more compassionate approach, a conversational tone. She acknowledges that we each create our own framework of support on "Whatever Helps You Sleep". A stinging electric guitar line orients us to the upbeat cut, piercing through the full, bright country-pop arrangement. No matter our compulsion or our motivation, the Bible or the bottle, the singer reserves judgement: You put you faith in something you believe is true / Hoping it give everything it's got back to you / With a leather bound book and hope in an afterlife / Whatever helps you sleep at night. 

Songs from those earlier EPs were set firmly in a bed of familiar country sonics, elements of which remain on these new sessions. Hamilton has worked with co-producers Justin Craig and Duane Lundy to update those sounds on Zookeeper, adding an appealing and unobtrusive layer of contemporary production that suggests more of a roots pop with country accents. "Lucky" opens with a Bonnie Raitt-like bass groove, subtly bluesy electric guitar ushering in the large chorus which typifies Hamilton's writing. The song introduces a struggling songwriter navigating her world: She thought she'd have it all figured out. Without backing down or sinking in despair, Hamilton leaves room for moments of doubt, even as her voice rises hopefully: C'mon and throw me something / It all can't mean nothing / Don't drop me on a limb / Just to watch it break. Hamilton's longtime supporting band shows strength in their restraint on the beautifully downbeat "Baby Let's Ride", pedal steel and piano suggesting a melancholy spirit: Have you ever tried going 92 / Just cause you don't think the world needs you. 

As a songwriter, Abby Hamilton leans into her real vocal appeal and lyrics that can assume the tone of a close friend or confidant, investing Zookeeper with the boldness of Margo Price and the real-lived relatability of Hailey Whitters. There is a strain of Sheryl Crow on the encouragingly breezy "Good Thing", set to a light acoustic strum: You're in for a good thing baby ... Tomorrow can take care of itself. The fiery imagery of "Soccer Field" lands like a prophecy, stressing Hamilton's willingness to step a bit outside of her more traditional narrative comfort zone: Something that sounded like the voice of John Prine / Said all the good ones die / So I kissed your hands and started to cry. 

At heart, the songs of Abby Hamilton fill that purpose of music that encourages and affirms, music as best friend. I'm doin' alright, she sings on "Fine", Thanks for asking. Fortunately, she's a best friend who is wise and who makes superb country-pop. The pillowy-sweet ballad floats on a cloud of pedal steel, set aloft on a subtle chorus of angelic backing vocals. Even when things go bad, Abby Hamilton reminds us: It ain't bad luck / It's just poor stewardship of some damn good love. #1 Zookeeper (Of the San Diego Zoo) isn't just fine advice, it establishes Hamilton as among the year's most appealing new artists. 

- Esme Patterson, "Kinda Like Praying" Notes From Nowhere  (Esme, 23)

- Jason Hawk Harris, "Roll" Thin Places  (Bloodshot, 23)

- Laura Veirs, "Creatures Of a Day" Phone Orphans  (Raven Marching Band, Nov 3)

- Old Californio, "Destining Again" Metaterranea  (Old Cal, Oct 27)  D

- Madi Diaz, "Same Risk" Weird Faith  (Anti, Feb 9)  D

- Jerry Joseph, "Canadian Boyfriend" Baby You're the Man Who Would Be King  (Cosmo Sex School, 23)

- Joy Oladokun, "Black Car" Proof of Life (Deluxe)  (Verve, 23)  D

- Bones of JR Jones, "Blue Sky" Slow Lightning  (Bones, 23)

- Leyla McCalla, "Zanj (ft Alynda Segarra)" single  (Anti, 23)  D

- Molly Parden, "Dandy Blend" Sacramented  (Parden, 23)  D

- Nora Jane Struthers, "Back To Cast Iron" Back To Cast Iron  (Blue Pig, Oct 27)

- Adeem the Artist, "Dirt Bike (ft Andrea Kukuly Uriarte)"  single  (Four Quarters, 23)  D

- Sarah Jarosz, "Columbus & 89th" Polaroid Lovers  (Rounder, Jan 26)

- Willy Tea Taylor, "Bakersfield (ft Jeffrey Martin)" Great Western Hangover  (Blackwing, Oct 27)

- John R Miller, "Dollar Store Tents" Heat Comes Down  (Rounder, 23)

- Uncle Lucius, "Civilized Anxiety" Like It's the Last One Left  (Boo Clap, Dec 8)

- Leeroy Stagger, "Chop Wood Haul Water" single  (Tonic, 23)  D

^ Abby Hamilton, "Soccer Field" #1 Zookeeper (of the San Diego Zoo)  (Blue Gown, 23)

- Ward Davis, "Ain't Quite Mary Jane" single  (Davis, 23)  D

- Corb Lund, "Old Familiar Drunken Feeling" El Viejo (New West, Feb 23)  D

- Chris Stapleton, "It Takes a Woman" Higher  (Mercury, Nov 10)

- Steel Woods, "You Don't Even Known Who I Am" On Your Time  (Woods, 23)

- Amigo the Devil, "Cannibal Within" Yours Until the War Is Over  (Liars Club, Feb 23)  D

- Mali Velasquez, "Medicine" I'm Green  (Acrophase, 23)  D

- Damien Jurado, "St Gregory Hotel" Motorcycle Madness  (Maraqopa, 23)  D

- Deer Tick, "Dancing In the Dark" single  (ATO, 23)  D

- Geese, "Killing My Borrowed Time" 4D Country EP  (Partisan, 23)

- Beirut, "The Tern" Hadsel  (Pompeii, Nov 10)

- Violent Femmes, "Gone Daddy Gone/I Just Want To Make Love To You (Live at Folk City 1983)" Violent Femmes (Deluxe Edition)  (Craft, Dec 1)  D

- Brittany Howard, "What Now" What Now  (Island, 23)  D

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JASON HAWK HARRiS - THiN PLACES

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

October 8, 2023 

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

We're Not Lost: The Last Ride of the Show Ponies is a new film made by North Forty, following the folk quintet Show Ponies on their final tour. It's a scenario that likely plays out countless times during a year, as young and talented musicians face the tough decision to move on from their dreams. Jason Hawk Harris, Show Ponies' guitarist, expresses some optimism in being able to try new things as a solo artist. The open-faced Harris also mentions his own struggles in balancing the band's needs with the fact that his mother had just passed away. Roughly a year later, the solo Harris released Love & the Dark on Bloodshot Records, a collection haunted by the circumstances of her death. 

Of course, between the pandemic and the dissolution of Bloodshot, Harris had little opportunity to generate due awareness for the project. Once the label was reformed, and monetary matters were settled, Harris was brought back onboard for his second full-length. Thin Places picks up where that debut left off, a concept album of sorts that continues to color in the story of the songwriter wrestling with his mother's passing. The new sessions feature much the same outfit surrounding Harris, including a cohort of Show Ponies alumnus: Producer/instrumentalist Andy Freeman, Philip Glenn on strings and piano, and drummer Kevin Brown. 

Like Love & the Dark, these new songs speak from a Biblical vernacular, stories often peppered with a Christian mythology. Harris' song cycle begins with the ambient gospel of "Jordan and the Nile", his boyish vocal over the drone of a harmonium as we gather to add his mother's ashes to the eddying river. My uncle died praying for a miracle, he sings alongside Glenn's seesawing fiddle. Like Parker Millsap, Harris has no intention of preaching. Thin Places asks more questions than it answers, a blast of dark electricity interrupting the backing chorus. With unexpectedly bright colors and Afro-Latin rhythms, "Bring Out the Lillies" drops us in the midst of a congregation of mourners. Harris lurks like a question mark: Here I am sitting in church, and I don't know why. We're even allowed a glance into his mother's coffin: She's primped and adjusted / But she don't look any less dead. Glenn's essential fiddle spirals and swirls as the tune accelerates like an anxious, rising heartbeat. It feels like everyone's smiling and singing and praising too soon ...

Jason Hawk Harris won't keep us in church for too long. As we're aware, life intervenes and we're left grasping for meaning and emotional traction in the midst of navigating everyday survival. The singer turns to chemical stimulation on "Shine a Little Light", flirting with the edge in hopes of feeling something, anything. Adam "Ditch" Kurtz's pedal steel ensures that Harris' wide-ranging music remains rooted in country, even moreso than on his debut. From point oh-eight to point eight-oh / I didn't think that was possible, he sings. "I'm Getting By" skips on Brown's rushing percussion, another of the collection's songs whose upbeat musicality is juxtaposed with Harris' desperate search for balance: I don't like to ugly-cry in public too much. By "So Damn Good" he allows himself the distraction of his partner's beauty: Spiders spin their webs in lovely ways to catch her eye. God bless our superficial nature. 

As Harris dances along these Thin Places, we're treated to some excellent playing from his band and backing vocalists. There's a point in the Show Ponies documentary where Philip Glenn notes that Harris has a recurring tendency to want to drive his music in new directions, to push beyond the traditions of folk and country. These extra moments are largely what can set his music apart from the pack, the guitar pulsing like a heartbeat monitor on "The Abyss". Harris relates a harrowing story of discovering his mother's history of sexual abuse while reading the diary she left behind, his Greek chorus of backing vocalists repeating, This little light of mine ain't shining. As with "Grandfather" on his debut collection, Harris ends Thin Places with his most ambitious work in "White Berets". Here the artist again brings together the country-folk with his more progressive classical training, interweaving Louisiana rhythms and accordion with more formal string arrangements. The rollicking rhythms slow, then fade into a celestial cloud of pedal steel and twinkling piano, until we're brought full-circle with Harris' epitaph: Little river let me float for awhile / I wanna see the Jordan swallow the Nile. 

I'll take my glory with a little bit of shame, Harris sings on "Roll". The chorus swells with momentary gospel intensity, his voice reaching for its far edges. On Thin Places, Jason Hawk Harris delivers these value added moments on songs that simultaneously feed the need for good music while exceeding expectations with meaning-filled lyrics and passages that speak to the artist's impressive musical range. While Harris will surely move onto new topics as his career progresses, challenging himself to explore new avenues of expression, he demonstrates refreshing ability and ambition on his first two records. There is great reward in diving deep with Harris, joining him skipping stones across the abyss. 

A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster is all you need to keep tabs on new and forthcoming releases for our kind of music. F'rinstance, we recently added news of a new Flatland Cavalry project. The band's major label debut, Wandering Star comes via Interscope on October 27. Canada's Elliott BROOD return with their first full-length in a couple years. Town will land on shelve wherever music matters on November 3 (Six Shooter). Among our favorite singer-songwriters, John Moreland presents his first live album on November 10. Live at Third Man Records features work from throughout his career, cut to lathe in real time (Nov 10). Roadside Graves' last record was inspired by SE Hinton's Outsiders. Set for a November 10 release, I Won't Cry Alone takes inspiration from the author's celebrated Rumblefish novel (Don Giovanni). Finally, save room for new William Elliott Whitmore into the new year. His ninth studio album, Silently the Mind Breaks has been announced for a January 26 debut (Whitmore). 

- Roadside Graves, "We're Not Here" I Won't Cry Alone  (Don Giovanni, Nov 10)  D

- Steel Woods, "Border Lord" On Your Time  (Woods, 23)

- Blackberry Smoke, "Little Bit Crazy" Be Right Here  (3 Legged, Feb 16) 

- Mike & the Moonpies, "Rainy Day (live)" Live From the Devil's Backbone  (Prairie Rose, 23)  D

- Southall, "When You're Around" Southall  (Smoklahoma, 23)

- Zach Russell, "Born Again" Where the Flowers Meet the Dew  (Carlboro, Dec 1)  D

- John Baumann, "Revving Engines River Street" Border Radio  (Terlingua Spring, 23)

- Jerry Joseph, "Am I OK" Baby You're the Man Who Would Be King  (Cosmo Sex School, 23)

- Alejandro Escovedo, "From Death To Texas" Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions: The Task Has Overwhelmed Us  (Glitterhouse, 23)  D

- Andrew Bryant, "Gravy" Prodigal  (Sentimental Noises, Nov 3)

- Jolie Holland, "Me and My Dream" Haunted Mountain  (Cinquefoil, 23)

- Cory Hanson, "Western Cum" single  (Drag City, 23)  D

- Cactus Lee, "Lowell, Mass" Caravan  (Org Music, Oct 20)

- Jeffrey Martin, "Red Station Wagon" Thank God We Left the Garden  (Fluff & Gravy, Nov 3)

- Maya de Vitry, "Stacy In Her Wedding Gown" Infinite EP  (Mad Maker, Oct 20)  D

- Lily & Madeleine, "Good Things" Nite Swim  (L&M, 23)

- Midlake, "Roadrunner Blues (ft John Grant)" single  (Bella Union, 23)  D

- Liza Anne, "Internet Depression" Utopian  (AntiFragile, Nov 3) 

^ Jason Hawk Harris, "The Abyss" Thin Places  (Bloodshot, 23)

- Cruz Contreras, "Flashing Light" Cosmico  (Cosmico, 23)

- Maybel, "Matters" Gloam  (Idee Fixe, Oct 27)

- John R Miller, "Harper's Ferry Moon" Heat Comes Down  (Rounder, 23)

- Lindsay Lou, "Rules" Queen of Time  (Kill Rock Stars, 23)

- Aaron Lee Tasjan, "Late Night Grande Hotel" More Than a Whisper: Celebrating the Music of Nanci Griffith  (Rounder, 23)

- Ruston Kelly, "Dream Song (ft Samia)" single  (Grand Jury, 23)  D

- Dori Freeman, "Wrong Direction" Do You Recall  (Blue Hens, Nov 17)

- Brittney Spencer, "Bigger Than a Song" My Stupid Life  (Elektra, Jan 19)  D

- Margo Price, "Unoriginal Sin (ft Mike Campbell)" Strays II  (Loma Vista, Oct 13)

- Tre Burt, "To Be a River" Traffic Fiction  (Oh Boy, 23)

- Nikki Lane, "When My Morning Comes Around" single  (New West, 23)  D

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WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT SEPTEMBER?!!

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

October 1, 2023

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Blink-and-it's-gone September becomes October. Next thing you know, we're beset with end-of-year lists. Which seems odd, since I'm counting over one-hundred records remaining on our Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster release calendar. Nevertheless, we're calendaring our own monthlong Good Riddance to 2023 celebration, which seems to get longer every year. Here's the plan:

Year in Americana - Dec 3

Favorite Songs - Dec 10

Christmas Christmas - Dec 17

Favorite Albums - Dec 24

Covers - Dec 31

We ask that you respond appropriately. For now, let's add another ten strong songs that gave dimension and meaning to our last thirty days. We call it: 

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT SEPTEMBER?!!

1. Lydia Loveless, "Sex and Money" Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again  (Bloodshot, Sep 22) The digital ink has hardly dried on our appreciation of Loveless' new record, wherein we praised this power pop banger as one of our favorites of the year. With a hot pink Barbie movie hook and a self deprecating humor that carries throughout the collection, it's Lydia Loveless to a new degree. 

2. Maren Morris, "Get the Hell Out of Here" The Bridge EP  (Columbia, Sep 15) Morris released her two-song Bridge EP as a kiss-off to the exclusionary country mainstream, as well as a reckoning of her own role in the dysfunctional relationship. The lovely acoustic track speaks from this place of humility, a full but simple arrangement credited at least in part to Jack Antonoff, it's a sigh of a song: I do the best I can / But the more I hang around here, the less I give a damn / So to all the doubts and demons that I held so dear / Go on, get the hell outta here. 

^ 3. Abby Hamilton, "#1 Zookeeper (of the San Diego Zoo)" #1 Zookeeper (of the San Diego Zoo) (Blue Gown, Oct 13) We've bookmarked this debut full-length since catching wind of her earliest singles. As clever as Elizabeth Cook, with the soul and bombast of Margo Price, the Kentucky artist is in a decidedly modern setting for her first single, from the thrumming bass to the Olivia Rodrigo-esque recitative: I bet she's really pretty and really smart / She probably reads the New York Times or went to Harvard / Or won some kind of Nobel Peace Prize. This could be fun. 

4. Low Cut Connie, "Take Me To the Place" Art Dealers  (Contender, Sep 8) A longing ode to a lost place and time, inspired by the New York of Lou Reed and Patty Smith, Adam Weiner's new record is brilliantly evocative. One of the most daringly captivating performers in our kind of music. he and his band draw from a deep well of soul and scum, glamor and façade. With shared vocals by SUSU, "Take Me" casts a spell. 

5. Morgan Wade, "Losers Look Like Me" Psychopath  (Sony, Aug 25) Not everything on her second collection lands as truly as most of the songs from Reckless. That said, at her best Wade remains a fearless artist with a wisdom and melodic sensibility to rival Kasey Musgraves. Here she recognizes herself in the losers following in the footsteps of their failed parents. The midtempo country-rocker shines brighter than Ashley McBryde in a pop sense, but shares the other's first-hand knowledge of small town misgivings: I didn't know the world was so damn mean. 

6. Jeffrey Martin, "There Is a Treasure" Thank God We Left the Garden  (Fluff & Gravy, Nov 3) Good god, what do Jeffrey Martin and Anna Tivel talk about over dinner?! One-half of folk music's most eloquent pair, Martin has announced his first record in six years. Recorded in a backyard shed with an acoustic guitar and two mics, "Treasure" is an exquisite statement on meaning and mortality, hushed an reverent, gorgeously melodic. Per Martin, it's about the gift of feeling ourselves to be beautifully unimportant.  

7. Big Thief, "Born For Loving You" single  (4AD, Sep 13) You might recall that Big Thief's tangled gesture, Dragon New Warm Mountain, etc ... sat atop our year-end favorites for '22. This unexpectedly straightforward folk-rock track follows September's darker "Vampire Empire", though we've learned by now to eschew expectations for Adrienne Lenker and co. "Born" is as earnestly simple a song as the quartet has shared in recent years, even as Lenker's lyrics loop from the back of your pickup truck into the meaning-full cosmos: After the first stars formed, after the dinos fell / After the first light flickered out of this motel. 

8. Maria Elena Silva, "Love, If It Is So" Dulce  (Astral Spirits, Sep 29) Silva is a talented Chicago singer-guitarist whose new album careens through rock, jazz, and Latin music, delivered in Spanish as well as English. "Love" sequences bits from each of these, adding additional sparks of guitar from Mark Ribot to Silva's breathy, enigmatic vocal: Perfect angles get bent at the sight of me. 

9. Margo Cilker, "I Remember Carolina" Valley of Heart's Delight  (Fluff & Gravy, Sep 15) Cilker's second collection addresses concerns of home and place, where and how we belong. "Carolina" is a rollicking travelogue, a loose romp from Carolina to Montana, down through Oregon and into the changing landscapes of her native California coast. The bluegrass cut features Caleb Klauder on mandolin, Jenny Conlee-Drizos at a pub-ready piano, and some reckless fiddle from Annie Staninec. 

10. Sarah Jarosz, "Jealous Moon" Polaroid Lovers  (Rounder, Jan 26) Multi-instrumentalist Jarosz was not yet 20 when she was crowned a bluegrass debutante by NPR. Several bluegrass, folk, and americana crowns later (incl. four Grammys), she announces her seventh record with a pulsing, polished shot of country-pop miles from those 'grass roots. Produced and co-written by Daniel Tashian (who played a hand in Kasey Musgraves' break from country), "Jealous" charges forward on Edge-y guitar spirals and Fred Eltringham's 80's-adjacent wave of drums: Queen bee buzzing round my right arm / Wonder how she keeps her kingdom spinning. 

ROUTES-cast OCTOBER 1, 2023

- Flatland Cavalry, "Mornings With You (ft Kaitlin Butts)" Wandering Star  (Interscope, Oct 27)  D

- Shane Smith & the Saints, "Greys Between" single  (Geronimo West, 23)  D

- Charlie Crockett, "Black Sedan (live)" Live From the Ryman  (Son of Davy, 23)

- Goodnight Texas, "Runaways (ft Kirk Hammett)" single  (2 Cent Bank Check, 23)  D

- Old Heavy Hands, "Coming Down" Small Fires  (OHH, Jan 19)  D

- Southall, "Scared Money" Southall  (Smoklahoma, 23)  D

- Howdies, "Cry Mercy" Howdies All Around  (Normaltown, 23)

- Lindsay Lou, "Nothing's Working (ft Billy Strings)" Queen of Time  (Kill Rock Stars, 23)

- Buddy & Julie Miller, "I Been Around" In the Throes  (New West, 23)

- Duff Thompson, "Up and Go" Shadow People  (Mashed Potato, Oct 27)

- Owen Temple, "Beautiful Accidents" Rings On a Tree  (El Paisano, 23)

- Van Plating, "Joel Called the Ravens (ft Ottoman Turks)" Orange Blossom Child  (Singular, 23)

- Charles Wesley Godwin, "Soul Like Mine" Family Ties  (Big Loud, 23)

- Zach Bryan, "Sarah's Place (ft Noah Kahan)" Boys of Faith EP  (Belting Bronco, 23)

- Jerry Joseph, "Book Burning" Baby You're the Man Who Would Be King  (Cosmo Sex School, 23)

- Jaime Wyatt, "Althea" Feel Good  (New West, Nov 3)

- William Elliott Whitmore, "Adaptation and Survival" Silently the Mind Breaks  (Whitmore, Jan 26)  D

- John Moreland, "Dim Little Light (live)" Live at Third Man Records  (Third Man, Nov 10)  D

- Bones of JR Jones, "Animals" Slow Lightning  (Bones, Oct 13)

- Jason Isbell, "Stockholm (live)" Southeastern (10th Anniversary Edition)  (Southeastern, 23)  D

- John P Strohm, "This American Lie" Something To Look Forward To  (Propeller Sound, 23)

- Elliott BROOD, "Rose City" Town  (Six Shooter, Nov 3)  D

- Dylan LeBlanc, "Coyote" Coyote  (ATO, Oct 20)

- Connie Lovatt, "Gull" Coconut Mirror  (Enchante, 23)

- Wilco, "Soldier Child" Cousin  (dBpm, 23)

- Sun June, "Mixed Bag" Bad Dream Jaguar  (Run For Cover, Oct 20)

- Iron & Wine, "Thomas County Law (live)" Who Can See Forever Soundtrack  (Sub Pop, Nov 17)  D

- Little Mazarn, "Lake Texoma" Honey Island General Store EP  (Double Yolk, 23)  D

- Yasmin Williams, "Dawning (ft Aoife O'Donovan)" single  (Nonesuch, 23)  D

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