ROUTES & BRANCHES  
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
January 20, 2019
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Was a time I would keep up better with Canadian music releases.  Under the tutelage of a handful of quality bloggers, I would discover gems of the North Country like Roger Dean Young & Tin Cup, whose 2011 Threshold record is impossible to track down (but don't give up, if only for one of my favorite songs of all time, "Keremeos").  As blogs do, each ceased operation and my pipeline to Canadiana gradually dried up.

During that time of my Great Canuck Exploration, I came across the Sumner Brothers.  Practically unknown south of the 49th Parallel, Brian and Bob Sumner and their associates set fire to some of the further reaches of roots music.  After five releases alongside his brother, Bob Sumner has emerged with a solo CD, Sings Wasted Love Songs (Jan 25).

While the Sumner Bros. are capable of a racket at any given time, one of my favorite weapons in their arsenal is Bob Sumner's tremendous way with a ballad.  By way of introducing the new collection, he confesses he's a junkie for sad songs and stories.  Melancholy runs like tears (or two-dollar beers on tap) throughout Wasted Love, a deep despair that comes easiest to hopeless romantics with a voice like Sumner's. From "Riverbed": I dreamt it was the wings of a thousand golden doves / Tripped me from my feet / Lay me at the doorstep of your heart.

Like "Riverbed", much of Sumner's new project is characterized by space.  Big sky arrangements shine with pedal steel (Chris Gestrian and Matt Kelly) and cinematic strings are set aloft by prolific violin eclectic Jesse Zubot.  Sumner's voice rarely soars, but can convey heartbreak and longing as well as any, with the soul of a solo Nathaniel Rateliff and the frankness of Lambchop's Kurt Wagner (or maybe a more animated Brett Sparks of Handsome Family).

"New York City" lives on the lovely side of bleak: When the nighttime falls on this empty home / I'll be sitting in the kitchen all alone / Picture of you in a bar / And the message you left on my machine / Said babe this city don't hold a flame to you.  It's a gorgeous arrangement, acoustic and electric, folk and country, intimacy and distance.

Those guitars, shared between Etienne Tremblay and Paul Rigby (seen recently all over Neko Case's phenomenal Hell-on) largely establish the mood for Wasted Love Songs.  Often downcast and mournful, they can also erupt with sparks of desire, anger or frustration.  While Bob Sumner has staked his claim on sad songs and stories for this project, he's not a one-trick troubadour.  That electric buzz that can kick up on Sumner Brothers records engages on new tracks like "Comin' Around", a Byrds-esque dose of California country featuring some nice keys.  "My Old Friend" is the collection's heaviest cut: I don't believe in love / I don't believe in anything Sumner despairs.  Blunt force guitars are given free rein to spark and spit, and the singer's final sentiment: God damn it all / God damn it all.

Fact is, there are any number of higher-profile releases in my queue for possible review, several of them pretty fine.  But Sings Wasted Love Songs is simply a record that could too easily fall beneath the popular radar here in the U.S.  There's little if any outright irony here, still he approaches his craft with a wry candor that saves his work from sinking into maudlin self-parody.  Bob Sumner deserves a wider hearing, a writer of genuine pathos with a sharp ear for a good sad song.

- Steel Woods, "One Of These Days" Old News  (Woods, 19)
- Nikki Lane, "Coming Home To You" Walk of Shame  (Iamsound, 11)
- Andrew Combs, "Too Stoned To Cry (2019 Recut)"  Worried Man (Deluxe Edition)  (New West, 19)  D
- Ward Davis, "Good and Drunk" Asunder EP  (Davis, 18)
- Kelly Hogan, "Plant White Roses" I Like To Keep Myself In Pain  (Anti, 12)
^ Bob Sumner, "New York City" Wasted Love Songs  (Sumner, Jan 25)
- JS Ondara, "Torch Song" Tales of America  (Verve, Feb 15)
- Caleb Elliott, "Makes Me Wonder" Forever To Fade  (Single Lock, Mar 8)  D
- Steve Gunn, "Morning Is Mended" Unseen In Between  (Matador, 19)
- HC McEntire, "Houses of the Holy" single  (Merge, 19)  D
- Townes Van Zandt, "All I Need" Sky Blue  (Fat Possum, Mar 7)  D
- Byrds, "Bag Full of Money" Farther Along  (Sony, 71)
- Flatland Cavalry, "Honeywine" Homeland Insecurity  (Flatland, 19)
- Caroline Spence, "Long Haul" Mint Condition  (Rounder, May 3)  D
- Cass McCombs, "Great Pixley Train Robbery" Tip of the Sphere  (Anti, Feb 8)
- Son Volt, "Devil May Care" Union  (Transmit Sound, Mar 29)  D
- Deadstring Brothers, "Sacred Heart" Starving Winter Report  (Bloodshot, 06)
- Flesh Eaters, "She's Like Heroin To Me" I Used To Be Pretty  (Yep Roc, 19)
- Matthew Logan Vasquez, "Trailer Park" Light'n Up  (Dine Alone, Feb 22)  D
- Susto, "Homeboy" Ever Since I Lost My Mind  (Rounder, Feb 22)
- Shovels & Rope, "The Wire" By Blood  (Dualtone, Apr 12)  D
- Waco Brothers, "Harm's Way" To the Last Dead Cowboy  (Bloodshot, 95)
- Ben Dickey, "I Think It's All Different" Glimmer On the Outskirts  (SexHawkeBlack, Mar 8)  D
- Scott Hirsch, "Rose's Song" Lost Time Behind the Moon  (Scissor Tail, 18)
- Molly Tuttle, "Take the Journey" When You're Ready  (Compass, Apr 5)  D
- Leo Bud Welch, "I Come To Praise His Name" Angels In Heaven Done Sign My Name  (Easy Eye, Mar 8)  D
- Cale Tyson, "Red Blooded Fools (feat. Jackie Cohen)" narcissist  (Tyson, Feb 1)
- John Paul White, "Long Way Home" Hurting Kind  (Single Lock, Apr 12)  D
- Yola, "Faraway Look" Walk Through Fire  (Easy Eye, Feb 22)
- James McMurtry, "Soda and Salt" Walk Between the Raindrops  (Sugar Hill, 06)

These early days of 2019 continue to prove rich with the promise of new releases.  This week we were gifted news of a new Shovels & Rope project.  Strand of Oaks was coaxed back into the studio for his March 22 Eraserland, with some help from My Morning Jacket and Jason Isbell.  We have a promise, but not a date, from Jason Ringenberg, as well as a May release for Caroline Spence's first Rounder record.  And there's apparently blood remaining in the Townes Van Zandt stone, as the estate readies another posthumous project.

For the final release date of January, Friday the 25th, we'll welcome an excellent country debut from Joshua Ray Walker.  Smithsonian brings us the trio Lula Wiles, and William Tyler Goes West.  All this plus a solo CD from Bob Sumner (he of the Sumner Brothers) and the return of Amelia White.