featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
October 8, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Maybe you're looking for a twelve-minute instrumental to soundtrack your next walk through the fog-shrouded fall forests of the Pacific Northwest. Perhaps you'd prefer something appropriately ambient, maybe with pedal steel, droning keyboards, with distantly thundering percussion. Three-quarters of the way through Hearts Of Oak's sprawling Valley Of Dark Hills, the loose ensemble features just the thing, a shambling piece that might soundtrack a scene from a yet-unmade Cormac McCarthy film. The synth on "Infinite Horizon" is wielded by Aron Christenson, the Portland outfit's usual bassist. In a dark turn of events, Christenson was found nearby a Washington forest trail, alongside his dog, both with bullet wounds. While some details have been gathered since the episode, the murder remains troublingly unresolved by local authorities.
That's the unsettling setting for Valley Of Dark Hills, the fifth project from Portland's Hearts Of Oak, an affiliation of players gathered by singer-songwriter Nate Wallace, guitarist Ezra Meredith and associates. The sessions began during the pandemic, recorded live on reel-to-reel tape with members and contributors coming and going. While the eventual double-album doesn't directly tell the story of Christenson's homicide, the songs were largely created in the wake of the event, bearing an appropriate weight and spirit, from a punk-roots cover of a song from Portland's legendary Dead Moon to these more atmospheric alt.country pieces.
More than ten years ago, we wrote in praise of Hearts Of Oak's New England collection, the third in their five releases of outsider shoegaze country, characterized by Ezra Meredith's thick-set electric guitar, Barry Walker Jr's dusty pedal steel, and Nate Wallace's creaking vocal delivery. Of course, we found the whole noisy package wonderful, the sort of truly alt stuff that has been tough to track down since the early days of the loosely-defined subgenre. The act's seventy-five monthly Spotify listeners can probably attest to both the authenticity and the acquired nature of Hearts Of Oak's oeuvre, but they'd/we'd undoubtedly swear by it as well.
Valley is introduced with the Exile-inspired "A River Why", with slippery guitars and the rare inclusion of horns. Nate Wallace recites his lyrics in a half-spoken, half-sun style, with the simple guitar line intoning behind him. Another of the collection's most engaging songs, "Oklahoma" includes organ and slide guitar for a terrifically sloppy 70s country-rocker. Both "Bandits" and "Boat" favor sharp twin guitars, alternately murmuring, chiming, and fuzzing.
Over sixteen tracks and two LPs, Hearts Of Oak include a handful of carefully chosen covers, none of which would be familiar to most listeners. With Meredith's muscular lead, "Spectacle", their Dark Moon tribute, is a perfect punk-forward garage nugget. "Dearly Departed", a little-known cut from the late Mike 'Reno' Lund's Drugstore Cowboy outfit, launches an extended guitar barrage and sorrowful synth strings. Valley Of Dark Hills closes with a live two-song recitation from a rare Meredith Brothers Band record, landing like another early alt.country throwback from a day when punk and country weren't as disparate.
Amidst all the weightiness and the noise, Nate Wallace drops a handful of beautifully fractured folk cuts, songs that emphasize the Dylan in his delivery. "Wearisome Traveler" recalls Time Out Of Mind-era Dylan in its nod to 60s folk and spare piano accompaniment. Backing vocalist Sarah Gwen trades lead on "We're Both Wild", and "Exile On Repeat" is another quieter number featuring Walker's steel. See also "Nothing To Do But Plow", which leans into 70s country-soul.
On Valley Of Dark Hills, Hearts Of Oak have created a stormy album in the wake of unimaginable circumstances. While the band cleaves closer to their country roots, their overcast spirit resembles Jason Molina's Crazy Horse-inspired records with Magnolia Electric Co. Released on Portland's Deer Lodge, a selective label run by Ezra Meredith, they face an uphill battle to disseminate their worthy music far beyond their immediate Northwest environs. That said, Hearts Of Oak fulfill a need for a strain of alt.country that is hinted at by Trummors, SUSS, or the late Richmond Fontaine, something that merits listening from a wider audience that surely exists. We'll accept the challenge of raising Hearts' Spotify listener base into triple digits.
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