ROUTES & BRANCHES 
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
July 14, 2019
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

If I'm going to be honest (finally), one of the best things I've done as a man is to raise three children into young adulthood, each with their own appreciation of music.  Granted, none of them seem to give a rip about our kind of music, but I'm just one man.  The other day I asked one of my progeny to name a song or an artist that surprised them in the past year, some music that came out of nowhere and sounded like nothing else.  I've mentioned previously how important the element of surprise is to my musical experience.  Eager to dismiss my question, they turned the spotlight back on me.  Between hemming and hawing, I think I mentioned Yola, Caleb Elliott, Daniel Norgren and Lucette.  This elicited a great chasm of silence which continues to this day ...

Anyhow, nothing sounds like Angie McMahon's full-length debut, Salt (Dualtone, July 26), and I'm grateful for the Australian artist's fierce originality.  McMahon is apparently successful enough in her homeland that there are videos online of great crowds of festival-goers shouting along with songs that have already carved a place in their ears.  Here in the U.S., her pending arrival was heralded in March with a near-perfect four-song EP appropriately named A Couple of Songs.  Early publicity called McMahon a twenty-something heroine you can relate to and root for - lofty praise for a soft-spoken young woman who assembled her first CD from bedroom demos.

Fortunately, McMahon and co-producer Alex O'Gorman have honored the spirit of those tapes, never forcing the intimate songs beyond a guitar/bass/drum setting.  "Push" is representative, focusing on the singer and her electric guitar, her throaty voice almost a whisper until she erupts into a soaring howl, punctuated by her accompanists.  Like PJ Harvey, Salt is primal, not primitive, a blues that bursts from a raw and honest place.  "Missing Me" is a more traditional blues-rocker, a fiery dose of electricity repeating the damning refrain, Loving you is lonely.

Angie McMahon has said that these songs were written in the span of several years, a time when the 24-year-old was exploring her identity and her space in the world.  Relationships are the topic de jour, though not so much desire for another person.  Salt is the portrait of a young woman yearning to connect, striving to maintain integrity and identity.  I don't know how to play the game / You say that we're not playing / We're not playing well she wails on "Play the Game", just that bare electric guitar until she's joined by skittering drums.   "Standout" features an uncharacteristically finessed jazz-inspired guitar line and a crushing vocal.  As an instrumentalist and a writer, McMahon does communicate from a position of confidence, though she's also willing to be vulnerable: I felt it all change today / But I still let my dress come undone.

Comparisons to fellow Australian guitar slinger Courtney Barnett are only tangentially accurate.  McMahon dives deeper emotionally, and presents a much more varied array of musical perspectives.  Nevertheless, both mine everyday details in constructing their songs, and both can wield a barbed sense of humor.  The record's most ready melody, "Slow Mover" could be one of my favorite songs of the year: Friend, old friend it's 4am / What are we doing in the street / I don't want to buy fried chicken / I wish I was going to sleep.  Another highlight (and a crowd favorite), "Pasta" begins, My bedroom is a disaster / My dog has got kidney failure.  Halfway through, the song pushes forward on a head of steam, McMahon growling like a young Chrissie Hynde.

She's not a heroine.  Angie McMahon is simply too busy being a young woman, lost as often as she is found, whip smart and temperamental but exceedingly genuine.  Oh there's cracks in me, she confesses on another of Salt's strongest moments.  But later on "Keeping Time", conducting slicing guitar and big banging drums: I want someone who's funny looking when they dance / I wanna dance with them.  The collection delivers countless pitch-perfect moments, connecting with solid emotional punches throughout.  She bares it all in the remarkable "And I Am a Woman", building to a raw cry that will cut deeply.

I have a sense that Angie McMahon will prove to be the largest artist on the Dualtone label - heck, they've had quite a year so far.  Her message will likely land on countless young ears at a critical time.  She will have the opportunity to grow as an artist, to try new things with her voice and her guitar, and one hopes/trusts that the refreshing integrity she exhibits on Salt will follow her into these new places. I'm taking flight / Or at least I'm about to ...

- Steve Earle, "Don't Let the Sunshine Fool You" single  (New West, 19)  D
- Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, "Highway Religion" Old Excuses  (Heckabad, 12)
- Have Gun Will Travel, "American History" Strange Chemistry  (Mile Wide, 19)
- Lillie Mae, "Terlingua Girl" Other Girls  (Third Man, Aug 16)
- Joseph Huber, "Centerline" Moondog  (Huber, 19)
- Matt Harlan, "Like Lightning (Way Out of Town)" Best Beasts  (Eight 30, 19)
^ Angie McMahon, "Missing Me" Salt  (Dualtone, Jul 26)
- Matt Woods, "Hey Heartbreaker" Natural Disasters  (Lonely Ones, 19)
- Broken West, "Hale Sunrise" I Can't Go On I'll Go On  (Merge, 07)
- Purple Mountains, "That's Just the Way That I Feel" Purple Mountains  (Drag City, 19)
- David Wax Museum, "Uncover the Gold" Line of Light  (Nine Mile, Aug 23)  D
- Smooth Hound Smith, "One in the Morning" Dog in a Manger  (SHS, Aug 9)
- Jade Jackson, "Wilderness" Wilderness  (Anti, 19)
- Bright Eyes, "Another Travelin' Song" I'm Wide Awake It's Morning  (Saddle Creek, 05)
- Jeremy Ivey, "Diamonds Back to Coal" Dream and the Dreamer  (Anti, Sep 13)
- Steel Wheels, "Under" Over the Trees  (Big Ring, 19)
- Charlie Parr, "Jubilee" Charlie Parr  (Red House, Sep 27)  D
- Kelsey Waldon, "Anyhow" White Noise / White Lines  (Oh Boy, Oct 4)  D
- Esther Rose, "The Game" Mashed Potato Records Vol 2  (Mashed Potato, Aug 9)
- Will Bennett & the Tells, "Charades" All Your Favorite Songs  (Jewel Box, Jul 26)
- Michaela Anne, "Child of the Wild" Desert Dove  (Yep Roc, Sep 27)
- Phosphorescent, "Tell Me Baby (Have You Had Enough)" Here's to Taking It Easy  (Dead Oceans, 10)
- Them Coulee Boys, "Pray You Don't Get Lonely" Die Happy  (TCB, Aug 23)  D
- John Hiatt & Lilly Hiatt, "You Must Go" single  (New West, 19)  D
- Pieta Brown, "Morning Fire" Freeway  (Righteous Babe, Sep 27)  D
- Eilen Jewell, "79 Cents (Meow Song)" Gypsy  (Signature Sounds, Aug 16)
- Nels Andrews, "Welterweight" Pigeon and the Crow  (Andrews, Aug 9)  D
- Erisy Watt, "Treasure Maps" Paints in the Sky  (Watt, Jul 26)  D
- John Calvin Abney, "Turn Again" Safe Passage  (Black Mesa, Sep 27)  D
- Ronnie Fauss, "The Last" I Am the Man You Know I'm Not  (New West, 12)


Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster is our obsessively maintained calendar of roots music release dates.  This means every blessed day we add new stuff to our list.  This week, f'rinstance, we included forthcoming records from the likes of Seth James, Chris Gantry and Dallas' garage-country Ottoman Turks.  If you're one of those types that complains that nobody makes rock music anymore, you'll want to get in line September 13 for the release of The Weeks' 5th full-length, Two Moons.  You might be asking yourself, "Didn't Leeroy Stagger just release a record a couple months ago?!!"  I know, right?  Well, the Canadian sees Strange Path as a more contemporary companion to May's americana offering.  Seems you can't throw a playlist without hitting some modern-day singer-songwriter.  July 26 marks the release date for the debut of Rose City resident Erisy Watt.  Freeway, Pieta Brown's September project, will be her first for Ani Difranco's Righteous Babe label.  Kelsey Waldon's got herself a rare spot on John Prine's Oh Boy Records.  Expect White Noise/White Lines come October 4.  Finally, John Calvin Abney's been keeping himself busy lately collaborating with Beth Bombara and with John Moreland.  He's apparently also found time to assemble Safe Passage, due in my eager ears September 27.  Every week is a wonderland!  Speaking of which, your weekly ROUTES-cast awaits:

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