ROUTES & BRANCHES  

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

December 23, 2018  (so this is Christmas)

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

A few weeks ago we shared some thought on Hiss Golden Messenger's essential box set, Devotion: Songs About Rivers and Spirits and Children.  While MC Taylor serves as the voice and face of the project, longtime partner Scott Hirsch is all over the multi-disc collection.  Hirsch's collaboration with Taylor began even before their Court & Spark band, before the duo decamped from California to settle in North Carolina.  As engineer, producer, writer and multi-instrumentalist, he played a key role in defining the parameters that became HGM.  Hirsch released Blue Rider Songs in 2016, a solo record that flirted with Court & Spark's psychedelic roots textures.  Now, in the bleak winter months when new music can be hard to come by, Scott Hirsch has returned to California, and has issued his second solo album, Lost Time Behind the Moon (Scissor Tail).

Lost Time is an intricate gem, an easygoing collection where everything is in its place and nothing is overstated.  While there is a free rein California country spirit to the songs, Hirsch incorporates more of the soul and textures that have driven HGM of late.  "When You Were Old (El Dorado)" makes the case perfectly, with keys and horns, heavenly backing vocals and liquid guitar.  With many of these songs, Hirsch sings of moving on, hearkening back and coming home:  We're on our way to gold.  More than anything on that first solo CD, its appeal is direct and immediate.

Scott Hirsch works alongside a humming band of accompanists, plugging in with coproducer and instrumentalist Mike Coykendall and Wilco percussionist Mikael Jorgensen, imminently tasteful guitarist William Tyler and vocalists Lauren Barth and Jade Hendrix.  "Nothing But Time" counts in with a programmed drum, but lazily unfolds into a JJ Cale-inspired shuffle:  Just how dark are your blues.  The wah-wah electric guitar bubbles to the surface of the steady groove, adding a touch of psychedelia to the mix.  I'm going back to California Hirsch sings on a bass-driven "No No", Where the grass grows so high.  One of the record's more sonically adventurous cuts, it suggests Steely Dan's more laid back moments, the false ending introducing a bit of guitar and organ vamping.

A pair of lovely instrumentals showcase Hirsch's understated ability as a guitarist, with "Pair of Nines" even letting in a bit of the world with windchimes and birdsong wafting between the strings.  This seemingly analog approach to Hirsch's musical soundscapes lends quieter pieces a pastoral spirit.

By and large, Lost Time Behind the Moon pays musical homage to what's sometimes called California cosmic country, haunted by the essence of Grateful Dead and Gram Parsons.  Pedal steel gleams across "Rose's Song":  A storm rolled in on the night we met / Hatful of rain.  Mike Coykendall's harmonica on "Long Lost Time" invokes Neil Young.  And sweet backing vocal flourishes like those from Barth and Hendrix haven't been heard since Delaney & Bonnie.  It's an album that begs to be enjoyed on vinyl, a collection that reminds us that Scott Hirsch's talents, too often in service of larger acts, truly merit this long-delayed showcase.

Another week, another slew of new tunes from what's shaping up to be a musically rich and rewarding 2019.

- JS Ondara, "American Dream" Tales of America  (Verve, 19)
- Yarn, "American Dream Dying" Lucky 13 Vol. 1  (Yarn, 18)
- Rosie Flores, "Love Don't Love Nobody" Simple Case of the Blues  (Flores, 19)
- Meat Puppets, "Warranty" Dusty Notes  (Megaforce, 19)  D
- Flaco Jimenez, "Carmelita (feat. Dwight Yoakam)" Partners  (Reprise, 92)
- Blank Range, "Change Your Look" In Unison  (Sturdy Girl, 19)
- Boo Ray, "Don't Look Back" Tennessee Alabama Fireworks  (Boo, 19)
- Flatland Calvary, "Come Back Down" Homeland Insecurity  (Flatland, 19)  D
- Liz Brasher, "Love Feasts" Painted Image  (Fat Possum, 19)
- Robert Ellis, "Passive Aggressive" Texas Piano Man  (New West, 19)
- Cass McCombs, "Estrella" Tip of the Sphere  (Anti, 19)
- Cale Tyson, "Not Healthy Anymore" narcissist  (Tyson, 19)  D
^ Scott Hirsch, "When You Were Old (El Dorado)" Lost Time Behind the Moon  (Scissor Tail, 18)  D
- William Tyler, "Call Me When I'm Breathing Again (feat. Hand Habits)" Goes West  (Paradise of Bachelors, 19)
- Golden Gunn, "From a Lincoln Continental" Golden Gunn  (Three Lobed, 13)
- Vandoliers, "Troublemaker" Forever  (Bloodshot, 19)  D
- Shonna Tucker, "Supper and Water and Me" Dreams of Mine EP  (Tucker, 18)
- Rob Baird, "Give Me Back My Love" After All  (Hard Luck, 19)  D
- State Champion, "My Over My Under" Send Flowers  (Sophomore Lounge, 18)
- Glorietta, "Stranger's Bed" Mas Glorietta  (Glorietta, 18)  D
- Mercury Rev, "Big Boss Man (feat. Hope Sandoval)" Bobbie Gentry's Delta Sweete Revisited  (Partisan, 19)
- Drunken Prayer, "Selfishness in Man" Cardelia Elsewhere  (Deer Lodge, 19)  D
- Sean McConnell, "Here We Go" Secondhand Smoke  (Big Picnic, 19)
- Shane Smith & the Saints, "Hurricane" single  (Geronimo West, 19)  D
- Lonesome Shack, "Past the Ditch" Desert Dreams  (Alive Naturalsound, 19)  D
- SUSTO, "Homeboy" Ever Since I Lost My Mind  (Rounder, 19)  D
- Avett Brothers, "Trouble Letting Go" single  (Republic, 18)  D
- Charles Wesley Godwin, "Coal Country" Seneca  (Godwin, 19)  D
- M Lockwood Porter, "Stumbling Toward the Dawn" single  (Black Mesa, 18)  D
- Flat Duo Jets, "I'll Have a Merry Christmas Without You" single  (Norton, 94)

S'pose it wouldn't hurt if I squeezed in just one more indulgent list here before the year's end.  With everyone else talking about 2018, here are the releases I'm most looking forward to in the coming weeks of 2019:

Delines, Imperial  (Decor, Jan 11)
Steel Woods, Old News  (Woods, Jan 18)
Blank Range, In Unison  (Sturdy Girl, Feb 1)
Mercury Rev, Bobbie Gentry's the Delta Sweete Revisited  (Partisan, Feb 8)
Charles Wesley Godwin, Seneca  (Godwin, Feb 15)
Ryan Bingham, American Love Song  (Axster Bingham, Feb 15)
Vandoliers, Forever  (Bloodshot, Feb 22)
Over the Rhine, Love & Revelation  (Great Speckled Dog, Mar 15)
Son Volt, Union  (Transmit Sound, Mar 29)
Anna Tivel, The Question  (Fluff & Gravy, Apr 19)

... and that's just the tip of that 'berg.  You can enjoy staring at everything else that's on its way by clicking on A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster to the right there.