ROUTES & BRANCHES 
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
April 21, 2019
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

As a man who pays really close attention to what's happening on the fringes of our kind of music, I gotta thank the universe when I come across something new and revelatory.  Wooh Dang (Superpuma) is Swedish artist Daniel Norgren's 8th project, though it's his first widely released record and my inaugural foray into his wonderful work.  I use a select few words to describe the kind of magic that happens in sessions like these:  Flow, groove, pocket, soul.  Zen.

With just a couple exceptions, ambiance isn't commonly embraced in roots music.  Norgren sets sail into Wooh Dang with the distinct sound of a fetal heartbeat.  "Blue Sky Moon" invites the listener to disappear into a cloud of drone, birdsounds and feedback before we hear the familiar sound of guitar and vocals.  It all blended beautifully with the barking dogs, windchimes and distant thunder outside my open Spring window.  That spirit follows into "The Flow", a more structured number that introduces Norgren's favored drum/piano/bass arrangement, the singer's distorted vocal and fuzzy guitar unspooling lazily into the song's 7-minutes: Bumming around, trying to find the flow.

The sessions for Wooh Dang were set to live analog tape in a 19th Century Swedish farmhouse near Norgren's home, his own "Big Pink".  We meet his band of comrades on "Dandelion Time", a New Orleans-flavored romp that might recall Professor Longhair.  Piano rolls and guitars scratch atop the deep groove carved by bass and percussion.  These songs are in no hurry, though they waste no time in catching that rhythmic train.  With songs fading in and out, the effect is of a listener walking past, poking their head in for a quick listen, then resuming their stroll.  Writes Norgren: The house was huge, full of good, inspiring mustiness, creaking wooden floors, scary old portrait paintings on the walls, and an old, black German piano which I used in all the songs.

These musicians are friends of Norgren's, folks who have been playing with him on stages for some time.  "The Power" speaks to a gospel influence, via piano and tambourine, slipping into such a loose and comfortable progression, a midtempo meandering that leads into one of the record's high points in "Rolling Rolling Rolling".  Norgren sings in a suitably worn voice: I've been waiting for so long for the train to come by.  The outfit draws from such a wide variety of roots influences, though the overall effect recalls fellow Swede Tallest Man on Earth, perhaps fronting Phil Cook's talented band of players.

Flow, groove, pocket.  It's most present in "Let Love Run the Game", a bluesy stomp with splendidly muddy guitar and an imminently soulful vocal.  Norgren describes a chance encounter with a wise bird, who counsels him: I'm starting to see your ass out here everyday now / You're looking for something, don't you?  The song invites listeners into that old barn, immersed in the rich and rewarding roots mix resounding from wall to wall.  I found myself wanting even Wooh Dang's lengthier tracks to continue beyond the record's grooves, to follow the spirit where it leads.  It's an effect that will translate especially well onto the stage during Norgren's upcoming tours.

The very best I can say about a CD is that it opened up a formerly unfamiliar world to me.  Even prior to finishing Wooh Dang, I journeyed into Norgren's earlier records like 2008's Outskirt (a more standard listen, and a fine place to spark your own experience).  Horrifying Deatheating Bloodspider, unleashed in 2010, features a heavier junkyard blues spirit.  2015's pair of releases, Alabursy and Green Stone set the stage nicely for what we enjoy in Wooh Dang.  Owing largely to buzzworthy live sessions at last year's Pickathon and Newport Folk festivals, US doors seem to be opening to Norgren's stuff.  I'd strongly advise you grab a good seat on his bandwagon before it leaves the station.

- David Dondero, "South of the South" South of the South  (Team Love, 05)
- Will Kimbrough, "I'm Not Running Away" I Like It Down Here  (Daphne, 19)
- Field Medic, "Tournament Horseshoe" Fade Into the Dawn  (Run For Cover, 19)
- Minus 5, "Scar Crow" Stroke Major  (Yep Roc, 19)  D
- Lucette, "Talk to Myself" Deluxe Hotel Room  (Rock Creek, May 17)
- Johnathan Rice, "Hollow Jubilee" Long Game  (Mano Walker, May 10)  D
- Shovels & Rope, "Hammer" By Blood  (Dualtone, 19)
- Tallest Man on Earth, "Waiting For My Ghost" I Love You It's a Fever Dream  (River/Birds, 19)
- Ron Sexsmith, "This is How I Know" Exit Strategy of the Soul  (Yep Roc, 08)
- Kevin Morby, "OMG Rock 'n Roll" Oh My God  (Dead Oceans, Apr 26)
- Mavis Staples, "Anytime" We Get By  (Anti, May 10)
^ Daniel Norgren, "Dandelion Time" Wooh Dang  (Superpuma, 19)
- Steve Earle, "Anyhow I Love You" Guy  (New West, 19)
- Bottle Rockets, "Nothin' But a Driver" Lean Forward  (Bloodshot, 09)
- Hailey Whitters, "Ten Year Town" The Dream  (Whitters, tbd)
- Claire Anne Taylor, "Boogie River" All the Words  (CAT, 19)
- Three Timers, "Love Goner" Sounds of San Antone  (Shotgun House, 19)  D
- Eilen Jewell, "Dusty Boxcar Wall" Letters to Sinners & Strangers  (Signature Sounds, 07)
- EB the Younger, "Used to Be" To Each His Own  (Bella Union, 19)
- Anna Tivel, "Anthony" The Question  (Fluff & Gravy, 19)
- Brad Armstrong, "Carry Your Head High" I Got No Place Remembers Me  (Cornelius Chapel, 19)
- Gabe Lee, "Last Country Song" Farmland  (Torrez, 19)
- Esther Rose, "Handyman" You Made It This Far  (Father/Daughter, Aug 23)  D
- Michael Fracasso, "My Blue Heaven" Big Top  (Lucky Hound, Jun 14)  D
- Damhnait Doyle, "This Ain't My Sin" Liquor Store Flowers  (Doyle, 19)  D
- Bedouine, "When You're Gone" Bird Songs of a Killjoy  (Spacebomb, May 31)
- Rachel Brooke, "Every Night About This Time" Killer's Dream  (Mal, 12)
- Erin Durant, "Highway Blue" Islands  (Keeled Scales, Jun 21)  D
- Dave Alvin, "What Am I Worth" King of California  (Craft, 94)
- Devil Makes Three, "Chained to the Couch (live)" Live at Red Rocks  (Kahn, 19)  D

Forthcoming projects were added to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster this week from Drew Holcomb, along with a surprise CD from Devil Makes Three, set to tape during a live show at Colorado's famed Red Rocks.  More folky goodness is promised from both Esther Rose and Erin Durant, and Canadian songsmith Donovan Woods has announced an acoustic reimagining of last year's Both Ways.  Michael Fracasso is issuing a long shelved project with Charlie Sexton and George Reiff, and Railroad Earth has announced a 7-inch Earth Day single that finds them putting music to some unreleased John Denver lyrics.