featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
August 27, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
A friend asked why we keep harping on about artists who take roots music in new directions, performers who hybridize their sound with elements of this or that. Don't you enjoy plain old americana like you used to, they asked.
We'll answer that question with an appreciation of Caleb Caudle's new Sweet Criiters album, landing this Friday. Caudle first appeared on our radar with 2014's Paint Another Layer On My Heart, and continued to earn our admiration with a trio of excellent records, including 2016's Carolina Ghost and 2018's Crushed Coins. From our review of Carolina Ghost: ... goes down smooth, a warm and familiar dose of Southern americana that immediately soothes the ears and stirs the soul ... a near perfect record. More recent albums have cemented this learned assessment, even as they have seen Caudle settle into a more domesticated expression of his country-folk.
For those last couple albums Caleb Caudle surrounds himself with some top notch instrumental support, with collaborators including Laur Joamets, Fred Eltringham, John Carter Cash, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, and many more. Sweet Critters is produced by Ben Tanner and John Paul White, who also play alongside Caudle on the well-pitched recording. While names like Karl Zerfas (bass), Cater Giegerich (dobro, mandolin), John Duncan (fiddle, mandolin), and Ken Lewis (drums) are less familiar, they provide more than capable accompaniment on Sweet Critters.
Caudle identifies the prevailing theme of his new project as a nocturnal collection of songs about things that keep you up at night (why this is not at least a double album I'm not certain). He's not exploring the depths of human depravity, but simply lets his mind wander across the broad, multi-faceted possibilities of being human. Caudle pulls from his own experience on "River Of Fire", searching for an understanding of the person who robbed him at gunpoint: I knew you were me all along, he sings from within a dreamy cloud of acoustics. He yearns for peace of mind on "Knee Deep Blues", a track that evokes Buddy Miller with its fine guitar work. And on "Mountain Laurel" Caudle merely seeks to center himself in peace of his natural surroundings: Beneath a cast iron skillet sky / I was caught and I couldn't catch my breath / Mountain laurel / May I use your forest floor / I no longer feel I'm at my best.
The songwriter and his cohort create pleasing acoustic arrangements, expressions from within the rich folk vernacular. The album's sole cover, a tramping take on Keith Whitley's classic "Great High Mountain", highlights John Duncan's fiddle drone. The gospel tone is carried into "Devil's Voice", a darker-shaded story of a friend's bright light, lost to addiction: She said the devil's voice sounds a lot like mine, Caudle sings, sliding into Carl Giegerich's dobro solo. "The Garage" adds Tanner's subtle keys for a story of a humble Winston-Salem venue where he began to find his identity as an artist: My poster hung beside / My hero's poster on the wall.
Like Pony Bradshaw, Caleb Caudle finds meaning in naming things, calling out plants, people, and places from his rural home. Allison Russell contributes wonderful vocals to "Heaven Sometimes", leading listeners to a place of stillness within the whirlwind: When I get like this / I look for peace in the still of the woods / The moss on the trees / I stand alone in the horsefly heat / While the fiddleheads unfurl / And it feels just like heaven sometimes. "Kentucky When You Called" lovingly evokes the Bluegrass State like a lover's embrace: Your blackberry stains / Your thorns in my shirt / Your mountain peaks and gloomy days / Your hairpin curves and straightaways. Aoife O'Donovan adds her voice to "The Brim": You show your truth / Loud as acorns pouring down on a tin roof.
Given his artistic reach (folk, country, gospel, grass), Caudle lands solidly in the americana pocket, territory he mines as well as any other current artist. And this is where we might find an answer to my friend's question. What draws my ear isn't musical diversity for its own sake, but rather a performer who defies expectation no matter their artistic vehicle. On Sweet Critters, Caleb Caudle encourages a listener to find beauty and comfort in the familiar. The songwriter and his outfit work within well established parameters, but their success lies in the depth of their expression. What we try to avoid on R&B is knowing what comes next, committing the sin of predictability, resorting to lazy cliche. On his new project, he satisfies without ever straying from his solid americana environs. And that's more than fine.
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