ROUTES & BRANCHES 
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
December 30, 2018
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

I find it curious when a blogger features separate year-end lists for favorite albums and favorite EPs.  Why not evaluate the music on its own merits?  Should an EP be regarded differently because it features 6 or 7 songs instead of 9 or 10?  On the other hand, if an artist is a handful of songs short of what passes for a full LP, why not just buckle down and write some more?  No matter, it's just the way music is shared these days.  And good stuff ... is good stuff.

This Episode, let's focus on a couple of EPs from the past several weeks.  Each is an eagerly awaited musical missive from an artist who's poised to take the next big step.

Shonna Tucker, Dreams of Mine  (Tucker, Nov 9)  Tucker served as bassist for the Drive-by Truckers for about a decade.  After her departure, she convened Eye Candy, featuring former Trucker John Neff, releasing A Tell All in 2013.  While she contributed a handful of songs to the band's records, I've never gotten the sense that Tucker was especially comfortable in her skin as a frontwoman.  In the ensuing years, she has contributed to projects by the late Chris Porter and John Calvin Abney, as well as touring behind Pegi Young.  The photo which adorns the jacket of her quietly released Dreams of Mine depicts a modestly adorned recording space, replete with a wee dog in its bed.  Tucker reportedly set these five originals to tape in one afternoon, joined in studio by the legendary keyboardist Spooner Oldham, whom she has known since she was friends with his daughter as an Alabama youngster.  While her work with Eye Candy added a dash of full band pop 'n soul to the Truckers' Southern rock thing, Dreams strips it all down to celebrate Tucker's writing and her classic country-soul vocals.  Despite our familiarity with her resume, these songs come as somewhat of a revelation, restrained but confident.  "For You" is a sweet waltz, with layered backing vocals and Oldham's perennially tasteful keys.  There's a touch of a younger Alison Krauss on "Come and Be With Me", and "Supper and Water and Me" would've landed on my year-end favorites if it had arrived earlier.  She even coaxes a rare backing vocal from Spooner on "The One I Do Not Know".  Dreams of Mine is raw and imperfect, but beautifully so.  Time will tell if Tucker follows up with a full-length in the year to come, but this session is more than enough to encourage me to hope for more.

Ward Davis, Asunder  (Davis, Nov 23)  From Nashville by way of Arkansas, Davis has earned his keep writing for Cody Jinks, Trace Adkins and that Willie Nelson fellow - You can find a nice piano take on "I'm Not the Devil", which he cowrote with Jinks.  In 2015, he issued his raw debut full length,15 Years in a 10 Year Town.  As he readies a promised follow-up, we have Asunder, which he introduces thusly:  I wrote some songs while I was going through some shit. Also listened to a lot of Tom Petty.  Need we know more?  As these four tunes reveal, Davis shares more than just a manager with fellow bearded neo-trads Whitey Morgan and Jinks.  On the confessional "Live a Lie", he is a powerfully genuine voice as a country singer and a writer, weighing the consequences of bringing his relationship to an end: Even though I know you're better off gone / Then why am I still losin' my mind.  Davis is a pianist, which adds a twist to a couple of these tunes, especially the sober "Good and Drunk" (which opens with the classic lyric, Drove myself to the lawyer today / Picked up a pen and signed my wife away).  On an EP dedicated to severing ties, the cover of Tom Petty's "Time To Move On" fits snugly.  Ward Davis has promised a 2019 full-length, which could bring him a share of the crowd already focused on more established artists like Morgan and Jinks.

Kent Eugene Goolsby, Every Way But Easy  (KEG, Nov 2)  At R&B HQ, we've been watching and sharing Goolsby's music for years.  You'll want to track down his stuff with the Only Sons, especially their tremendous 2011 release, American Stranger.  Since those days, Goolsby has shared studio and stage with fellow Murfreesboro area resident Joey Kneiser of Glossary.  Relocated to the Nashville area, Goolsby tags this four-song EP as a suitable companion to Stranger.  While his solo work has flirted with a variety of muses, Every Way is an impressively solid contemporary country rock collection.  Shot through with a sharp electric guitar, "Take Another Shot" is a polished gem with just enough grit.  Goolsby is a fine vocalist, an immediately appealing singer whose delivery is grounded in a slight rasp and a power unusual among independent artists.  "The Feeling" employs programmed beatz and a melodic guitar hook big enough to fill a stadium.  "Trophies of Youth" and "Victory Lap" will appeal to fans of Will Hoge's small town heartland roots.  The latter is an especially worthy lyric, encouraging a young woman to leave a town that's become too small:  Of all the love you've won / I wish that you'd come back for mine / But the only thing you're turning 'round is my old ball cap.  Like these other artists, Goolsby is a writer boasting more talent and than his audience might suggest, his generous gift just waiting to be discovered.

- Foxwarren, "Your Small Town" Foxwarren  (Anti, 18)
- Lily & Madeleine, "Just Do It" Canterbury Girls  (New West, Feb 22)
- Shinyribs, "Last Month of the Year" Kringle Tingle  (Mustard Lid, 18)
- Drunken Prayer, "Evangeline (feat. Janet Beveridge Bean)" single  (Drunken Prayer, 14)
- Yola, "Faraway Look" Walk Through Fire  (Easy Eye, Feb 22)
- Quaker City Night Hawks, "Suit In the Back" QCNH  (Lightning Rod, Mar 1)
- Jeff Tweedy, "Red Brick" WARM  (dBpm, 18)
- Carson McHone, "Don't You Think I Feel It Too" single  (Next Waltz, 18)
- Shane Smith & the Saints, "Mountain Girl" single  (Geronimo West, 18)
- Yarn, "One Man's Trash" Lucky 13 Vol. 1  (Yarn, 18)
- JS Ondara, "Lebanon" Tales of America  (Verve, Feb 15)
- Liz Brasher, "Blood of the Lamb" Painted Image  (Fat Possum, Jan 18)
- Rob Baird, "Burning Blue" After All  (Hard Luck, Jan 11)
- Shannon McNally, "Tennessee Blues" Geronimo  (Capitol, 05)
- Greensky Bluegrass, "Like Reflections" All For Money  (Big Blue Zoo, Jan 18)
- Scott Hirsch, "Nothing But Time" Lost Time Behind the Moon  (Scissor Tail, 18)
- Deer Tick, "Run of the Mill" Mayonnaise  (Partisan, Feb 1)
- Bob Sumner, "Riverbed" Wasted Love Songs  (Sumner, Jan 25)  D
- Josh Morningstar, "Damn These Birds" The Plea  (Young Mary, 18)  D
- Dillon Carmichael, "Hard On a Hangover" Hell On An Angel  (Riser House, 18)
- Harmed Brothers, "Bottle to Bottle" A Lovely Conversation  (Fluff & Gravy, 16)
^ Ward Davis, "Good and Drunk" Asunder  (Davis, 18)  D
- Joshua Ray Walker, "Working Girl" Wish You Were Here  (State Fair, Jan 25)  D
- Joseph Huber, "Hello Milwaukee" Tongues of Fire  (Huber, 12)
- Tom Russell, "October In the Railroad Earth" October In the Railroad Earth  (Frontera, Mar 15)  D
- Wrinkle Neck Mules, "Dust of Saturday" Pull the Brake  (Lower 40, 06)
^ Shonna Tucker, "For You" Dreams of Mine EP  (Tucker, 18)
- Shovels & Rope, "Splintered Fence" Predecessors  (Dualtone, 18)  D
^ Kent Eugene Goolsby, "Take Another Shot" Every Way But Easy EP  (KEG, 18)
- Only Sons, "Cutting Corners" American Stranger  (Only Sons, 11)

Like a diner surveying the remains of a holiday feast in horror, I enter 2019 beyond sated, fully engorged with year-end lists.  And I don't know that I'm really too eager to sup on the leftovers anytime soon.  Here's where my foodie metaphor breaks down ...  Hope rings eternal, new music awaits, and I'm hungry.  Something something kitchen.