by Jen Squires

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

November 25, 2018

Scott Foley, purveyor of lists

Did I mention that I'd be showcasing my favorite songs for 2018 this Episode?  As with past years, I won't be ranking these in order as I do with my year-end albums list (note to self: happening December 10).  Instead, we'll be calling this year's array:

SOME SONGSs I LIKED MORE THAN OTHER SONGs in 2018

Were I forced to settle on my five favorites for the past twelve months, I'd likely go with the following (in order of appearance):

Nathaniel Rateliff, "A Little Honey"
Trampled by Turtles, "We All Get Lonely"
American Aquarium, "Tough Folks"
Ruen Brothers, "All My Shades of Blue"
Austin Lucas, "Happy"

As of this weekend, I've pared my favorite albums list down to around 30.  We'll chew on it awhile and present it to you all in a couple weeks.

And friends, since we're on the safe side of the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend, let's look at a handful of our favorite peppermint-themed roots rock 'n soul releases for 2018.  This year's roots-facing seasonal releases are rich in originals.

Let's start with a single.  When what remains of the Monkees began assembling a holiday CD, they turned to Minus 5's Scott McCaughey to write them a little something.  Remember that Scott is a superfan, having released an original tribute, Of Monkees and Men in 2016. One song, "Christmas Party" ended up as the title cut for the Monkees' project.  Well on the mend from last year's stroke, McCaughey pairs with Peter Buck and Death Cab's Ben Gibbard to record one of the rejects, "Christmas in Antarctica" (because, let's face it, the North Pole gets all the Christmas love).  What's the point of stringing lights / When you're all by yourself / Merry Christmas everybody else.  It's the minty sort of confection on which McCaughey has earned his reputation.  See also last year's Minus 5 full-length, Dear December.  Expect a new full-length in 2019.

Seems just about every year R&B manages to squeeze a couple Los Straitjackets holiday tunes into our mixes.  The masked instrumentalists are veterans of the stuff, having released a few full-lengths and a handful of Christmas singles over the years.  The generous folks at Yep Roc jam it all into a stocking for us with Complete Christmas Songbook, from "Holiday Twist" (with vocal help from El Vez) to their ska-surf take on Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy".  Is there such a thing as too much Los Straitjackets?  Shut up and have another egg nog.

by Todd Fox

Back in the Winter of  '03, Otis Gibbs sneaked out a full-length collection of (mostly) originals called Once I Dreamed of Christmas.  The songwriter originally from Wanamaker, Indiana calls it a holiday album "for people who don't care too much about Christmas".  The record is being reissued after having been hard to find for several years, polished up and trimmed back to look nice when the relatives get here. Truth be told, for every "Carl and Mavis"  (They find a way to break up at Thanksgiving / So they don't have to buy no presents on Christmas Eve) there's a heartfelt "Color Wheel" or a sweet "Lonely Mistletoe Night".  Sure, there's the song about Santa beating up a reindeer, and Jesus shows up to warn us Just try to be careful what you're doing in my name, but there's a real heart beneath Gibb's gruff exterior.

Raul Malo is a sappy crooner at heart, as evidenced nowhere more than on his 2007 Marshmallow World CD.  His dayjob as frontguy for The Mavericks has always kept those hipster tendencies in check, allowing Malo to loosen up and make more noise.  While they've issued a few holiday singles over the years, Hey! Merry Christmas! is The Mavericks' first full-length seasonal collection. It's also the most traditional Christmas album among these, a manic blend of sleigh bells and Santa, snowfall and lingering mistletoe kisses.  Malo's effortlessly soaring voice is such an uncommon gift, complimented by the band's eclectic early rock and Latin racket.  Set the needle on the note-by-note rendering of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", or the Mavs' party-on-a-platter title track.  If you're gonna make a Christmas record, it should sound like Christmas, and Hey! would sound absolutely out of place at the pool next July.

JD McPherson's SOCKS is another CD that serves as both a suitable soundtrack for hanging tinsel and a plain good record.  You might recall that the Oklahoma retro roots rocker launched his initial Christmas volley with one of the strongest holiday originals in the past couple years, 2012's "Twinkle Little Christmas Lights".  With skronky sax and an infectious beat, "Hey Skinny Santa" worries that the man in red is too healthy:  Hey Mr Santa / How's it lookin' / That 32 waistline / You'd better get cookin'.  SOCKS finds McPherson in perennially good spirits, even when bemoaning the gift of more fuzzy footwear.  Jolly is the mood of the day on tracks like "Santa's Got a Mean Machine" and the bopping "All the Gifts I Need".  The collection is more Signs & Signifiers than the more adventurous Undivided Heart & Soul, but let's be honest.  Who wants to be challenged by their seasonal music?  An extra meta-bonus, fans can purchase a SOCKS themed pair of socks on McPherson's website.

Sentiments on Rodney Crowell's first holiday-themed full-length seem split between the jaded and the nostalgic, with songs like "Let's Skip Christmas This Year" and "Christmas Makes Me Sad".  Like Otis Gibbs, he admits that "My childhood memories of Christmas aren't warm and fuzzy".  Nevertheless, with guests like Lera Lynn, Vince Gill, Brennen Leigh and members of Crowell's family, musically it's a very satisfying record, more of a Crowell collection than one you'll be spinning whilst wrapping the presents.  On his website, Crowell reflects on how his long dormant seasonal spirit was kindled in large part upon hearing Hayes Carll's 2011 "Grateful For Christmas", an episode which drove him on a three-hour shopping spree and ultimately led back to the studios for these sessions.  "Very Merry Christmas" and  "All For Little Girls & Boys" will satisfy folks who crave something more red-and-green, but we've come to expect darker stuff from the thoughtful songwriter.  I'd throw my hat in the ring with another reviewer, "It may not always be a lot of fun, but it's always good":  It's Christmas in Vidor / 88 degrees / The taco stand's padlocked / Spanish moss hanging from the trees / Flip flops sticking to an asphalt road / The whole damn town's decorated to implode.  Ho ho ho ...

Old 97s point the sled back towards more upbeat fare with Love the Holidays, a session that answers the question, What would it sound like if the Old 97s recorded a Christmas record? Twangy reverb guitars are turnt up to eleven on this assortment of originals, the recordings for which certainly involved holiday spirits. "I Believe in Santa Claus" and "Snow Angels" mine a little deeper, reminding us that Rhett Miller is a more skilled writer than he pretends to be on some of the Old 97s' blunt bangers:  The snow fell / Like a peace treaty / On the fields of wheat / On the streets of the city.  See also, Rhett's new solo album, The Messenger.  That said, those ravers like "Gotta Love Being a Kid" are just dumb fa-la-la fun, including a "Rudolph" sequel that finds the red nosed reindeer rutting for a special Rudolphina.  Special Bonus Deluxe Red Bow downloads include four revved trad tracks tacked on for good measure.

Even in light of all these quality offerings, it's a relatively under-the-radar release from Canada's Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland that provides my favorite soundtrack to the season.  A Whitehorse Winter Classic is actually the strongest set the duo has issued in years.  Regular readers will recall my fondness for winter records by Over the Rhine and Matt Pond PA.  These indie folk arrangements leave similar tracks in the snow - smart, melodic originals that deliver warm winter wishes.  A children's choir on "December's Children", the lovely strings on "Two Snowbirds".   The voices of Doucet and McClelland twine like the ends of a bow on songs like "Snowballs and Snow Angels", and despite the sweet nature of most of these cuts Doucet's guitar brings a welcome edge.  Chrissie Hynde's "2000 Miles" is one of my favorite contemporary seasonal songs, and Whitehorse raises chills with their simply shimmering rendition.  "If we find Christmas music generally awful," writes Doucet, "it is incumbent on us to make it better".

In summary, a helluva lot of Christmas music for folks this season.  If it's too early for you to strap on the jingle bells, if you're still in denial about the pending festivities, we'll grant you just one more week.  Here are my thirty favorite tunes from the non-Christmas months.

- Nathaniel Rateliff & Night Sweats, "A Little Honey" Tearing at the Seams (Rounder, Mar 9)
- Brent Cobb, "King of Alabama" Providence Canyon (Elektra, May 11)
- Dead Horses, "Turntable" My Mother the Moon (Dead Horses, Apr 6)
- Jayhawks, "Everybody Knows" Back Roads & Abandoned Motels (Sony, Jul 13)
- Donovan Woods, "Truck Full of Money" Both Ways (Meant Well, Apr 20)
- Ruen Brothers, "All My Shades of Blue" All My Shades of Blue (Ramseur, Jun 1)
- Hawks & Doves, "Geek Love" From a White Motel (Anderson, Jul 27)
- HC McIntyre, "Quartz in the Valley" Lionheart (Merge, Jan 26)
- Left Arm Tan, "Best I Never Had" El Camino (LAT, Apr 6)
- Kevin Gordon, "Saint on a Chain" Tilt & Shine (Crowville, Jul 27)
- Wade Bowen, "So Long 6th Street" Solid Ground (Bowen Sounds, Feb 9)
- Jason Boland & the Stragglers, "Tattoo of a Bruise" Hard Times Are Relative (Proud Souls, May 18)
- Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, "Over You" Years (Bloodshot, Apr 6)
- Kevin Galloway, "Hands On the Wheel" The Change (Nine Mile, Aug 3)
- Will Hoge, "Still a Southern Man" My American Dream (Edlo, Oct 5)
- Courtney Marie Andrews, "Heart and Mind" single (Fat Possum, Sep 10)
- Will Stewart, "Sipsey" County Seat (Cornelius Chapel, Apr 6)
- Trampled by Turtles, "We All Get Lonely" Life is Good On the Open Road (Banjodad, May 4)
- Buffalo Tom, "All Be Gone" Quiet and Peace (Schoolkids, Mar 2)
- Pollies, "Love's To Fault" Transmissions (This is American Music, Sep 28)
- Rustin Kelly, "Son of a Highway Daughter" Dying Star (Rounder, Sep 7)
- Neko Case w/Eric Bachman, "Sleep All Summer" Hell-on  (Anti, Jun 1)
- American Aquarium, "Tough Folks" Things Change (New West, Jun 1)
- Adam Faucett, "Central Avenue" It Took the Shape of a Bird (Last Chance, Aug 24)
- Ryan Culwell, "Last American" Last American (Culwell, Aug 24)
- Austin Lucas, "Happy" Immortal Americans  (Last Chance, Aug 17)
- Kendl Winter, "Stumbler's Business" Stumbler's Business (Team Love, Jul 20)
- Larry & His Flask, "Ellipsis" This Remedy (Xtra Mile, Oct 12)
- Lori McKenna, "Lot Behind St Mary's" The Tree (CN, Jul 20)
- Marissa Nadler, "I Can't Listen To Gene Clark Anymore" For My Crimes (Sacred Bones, Sep 28)

We'll get'cher Christmas music fix addressed next week.  Until then, you can just set this week's ROUTES-cast for shuffle and enjoy it on repeat.  I'll leave the playlist up on the Spotify until it starts to get crusty.  As always, feel free to share your own list in the Comments, or email to me at routesandbranches@gmail.com.