ROUTES & BRANCHES

June 9, 2012

Scott Foley

Thanks to a recent tip from a fellow programmer, I recently began recording my broadcasts using an online service.  This gives me the opportunity to be hypercritical of my shows in the privacy of my own office.  Helpfully, the site also suggests other streaming programs I might be interested in, like "The Risky Biscuit Hayseed Hoot".  Per its webhome, the RBHH is "a great soundtrack for ... cleaning up around the ranch, a nekkid dip in the hot spring, driving out to your favorite fishin' hole, gathering with friends on the porch ... etc."  I mean no offense to host Don "Dondo" Darue or his loyal listeners, but I aim for a different haybale on R&B.  I know there are cuts on my own setlist that make you want to jam a long piece of wheat between your teeth and dig out the overalls, but I generally hope to work from a more urban setting.  I will also remind you of the ban I maintain against songs likening women or relationships to food (with the notable exception of Golden Smog's "Pecan Pie").  Plus, I tend to leave the propaganda about the glories of liquor and the evil weed to Andy's Roadhouse Radio program.  Which isn't to say that there's not a place for shows of that ilk.  There was a time when I would announce Routes & Branches as "The very best of americana, alt.country and roots music with an indie edge".  My hope is that that indie edge remains, that tunes like Langhorne Slim's manic "Way We Move", Arliss Nancy's tough-as-nails "Crease" or 4H Royalty's "Accordion Bus" still define the sound of R&B (despite the fact that my kids still refer to it all as "country music").

That said, please enjoy some Colorado music this week, in the form of Denver's 4H Royalty.  The band is fronted by Zach Boddicker, who has spent time with Drag the River and Railbenders as well.  The follow-up to their Colossalalia, Where UFOs Go To Die deals from a similar deck as Drag the River, though Boddicker injects more hope and more humor than DtR.  The band flirts with the "m" word, too (that would be "maturity"), demonstrating a promising ability to tell a story a'la Richmond Fontaine or even Drive-by Truckers.  While bands of their ilk might be tempted to floor the pedal from start to finish, 4H Royalty allows their songs to breathe a bit, which is refreshing.  Plus, they sent me a decal, which is the next best thing to a $20 bill to assure a quick write-up ...


*  Langhorne Slim, "Way We Move"  Way We Move  (Ramseur, 12)
*  Sadies, "Loved On Look"  Tremendous Efforts  (Bloodshot, 01)
*  Todd Snider, "Jaded Lover"  Time As We Know It  (Aimless, 12)
*  Joy Mills, "History Repeats"  Trick Of the Eye  (Self, 12)
^  4H Royalty, "Accordion Bus"  Where UFOs Go To Die  (Self, 12)
*  Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez, "Let's Leave This Town"  Let's Leave This Town  (Texas Music, 02)
*  John Fullbright, "All the Time In the World"  From the Ground Up  (Blue Dirt, 12)
*  Fiction Is Fun, "Rain"  You Die Every Time Always  (Self, 12)
*  Shovels & Rope, "O' Be Joyful"  O' Be Joyful  (Dualtone, 12)
*  Scott Miller, "Only Road"  Citation  (Sugar Hill, 06)
*  Cory Branan, "Darken My Door"  Mutt  (Bloodshot, 12)
*  Brandi Carlile, "Hard Way Home"  Bear Creek  (Columbia, 12)
*  Trampled By Turtles, "Walt Whitman"  Stars & Satellites  (Thirty Tigers, 12)
*  Travel By Sea, "Let It All Lie Down"  Days Of My Escape  (Self, 08)
*  Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell, "Anything But Tame"  KIN  (Vanguard, 12)
*  Sara Watkins, "Impossible"  Sun Midnight Sun  (Nonesuch, 12)
*  Arliss Nancy, "Crease"  Simple Machines  (Suburban Home, 12)
*  Shawn Colvin, "All Fall Down"  All Fall Down  (Nonesuch, 12)
*  Kelly Hogan, "Plant White Roses"  I Like To Keep Myself In Pain  (Anti, 12)
*  Neil Young & Crazy Horse, "This Land Is Your Land"  Americana   (Reprise, 12)
*  Rachel Harrington, "Makin' Our House a Honkytonk"  Makin' Our House a Honkytonk  (Skinny Dennis, 12)
*  Emmylou Harris, "Going Back To Harlan"  Wrecking Ball  (Elektra, 95)
*  Johnny Hickman, "Measure Of a Man"  Tilting  (Self, 12)
*  Rhett Miller, "As Close As I Came To Being Right"  Dreamer  (Maximum Sunshine, 12)
*  Jon Dee Graham, "Just Like That"  Garage Sale  (Freedom, 12)
*  Tom Waits, "Hope I Don't Fall In Love With You"  Early Years Vol 2  (Fantasy, 92)