ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
August 4, 2019
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

As a kindergartner I lived for a year in China Lake, California.  My father was in the Navy, and this base is situated on the outskirts of the Mojave Desert, a couple miles from Ridgecrest.  I hold just a couple memories from this time, including learning to ride my bike in the sand, cultivating a broken glass collection from shards I found buried in sand, and walking through the sand to get to school.  To this day I'm not especially fond of sand.  At the coast I will stand in the parking lot and admire the view rather than trekking into the glorified litter box that is the beach.  While I'm sure it was deadly hot in China Lake, I don't recall that aspect of my year.  I do recall, however, how my mother wept when she beheld our sandy new home.

Heat and Summer are all of a piece.  For me, the songs of this season don't sound like the Beach Boys or Jan & Dean.  Summer sounds like RF Shannon and their new Rain on Dust record (Keeled Scales).  It is the wide-open sonic skies and the dripping landscapes and claustrophobic closeness of it all.  Fronted by Shane Renfro, the collective has released two other projects in quick succession since their 2017 debut.  Jaguar Palace and Trickster Blues saw RF Shannon circle the psychedelic country-soul upon which they've settled for Rain on Dust.

The new songs derive their sound from the space between LA and Austin.  Renfro triangulates, I like the idea of a Southwestern sound. We're too country for the indie world, not country enough for the americana crowd, too mellow for the psych scene, too Texas thunderstorm for the California sunshine.  This deliberate sense of place expresses itself in layered vocals, gossamer pedal steel and language rooted in the landscape.  "Lay Low" is characterized by a darker Western twang: Everywhere is beauty / Everywhere is pain.

Renfro has corralled the cinematic sprawl of those first two records, presenting instead shorter pieces favoring tighter song structures.  "Buzzards On the Breeze" showcases evocative pedal steel atop strummed acoustic and hushed vocals.  As the title might suggest, it's a breezy number that demonstrates allegiance to both LA's pop-folk and Texas' country legacies.  The song is unhurried without giving into indulgence, structured without being predictable.  The languid pedal steel of "Angeline" conjures a desert oasis: You know I'm a believer baby / It's easy when you don't know anything / Maybe it's something in the water / It's swimming in the ancient ocean / I'm drowning in this empty bottle. 

RF Shannon also give lead to a fondness for classic R&B on songs like "Don't Be Shy", floating on echoes of old school soul, albeit slowed and stirred a bit.  A subtle but steady beat carries the song, Renfro's yearning reverbed vocal joined by piano and Beach Boy harmonies.  "Mother Be" embraces what the artist terms desert blues:  Watch how the wind / Fingers the sea / None of you miss her company.  At the close of an admirably restrained session, the song is finally released, a prayer unspooled into the stratosphere, only a single parched cloud on the horizon.

Rain On Dust might recall the mystery of acts like Mojave 3 or the psychedelic undercurrents of Blank Range.  But while Renfro and his cohort are by no means purists, they are schooled in the iconic country figures like Townes Van Zandt or early Jerry Jeff Walker.  Where other bands might get lost in clouds of heavy-osity, there's a dreamy lightness to "Wild Rose Pass": I fell in love with a silhouette / Blue sky and linen thread.  RF Shannon won't be mistaken for denizens of the state's honky-tonks, but there's a distinct West Texas elevation to songs like "Ballad of a Thin Place".  Repeated listenings will reward listeners with an appreciation for the sessions' perfectly simple arrangements, especially with regards to Luke Dawson's beautiful pedal steel work.  Like a journey through the desert Southwest, there's a lot more happening on Rain On Dust than might first meet the eye.

RF Shannon's new CD hails from the Keeled Scales label.  Keeled Scales is a (very) small Austin operation built by a pair of musicians in 2014.  Below the radar, the label issued music that matters from artists like Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, David Dondero and Twain.  2019 has proven a stellar year for Keeled Scales, having shared records from Buck Meek, Jo Schornikow and Jordan Moser, with others on the docket from Erin Durant and Will Johnson.  For my part, the best music often hails from these tiny labels, these labors of love.  We probably wouldn't do what we're doing here at Routes & Branches if outfits like Keeled Scales weren't doing what they're doing.

- Tyler Childers, "Bus Route" Country Squire  (Hickman Holler, 19)
- Charlie Parr, "Cheap Wine" Charlie Parr  (Red House, Sep 27)
- Ruston Kelly, "Weeping Willow" single  (Rounder, 19)  D
- Charley Crockett, "Borrowed Time" The Valley  (Son of Davy, Sep 20)
- Alexa Rose, "Medicine For Living" Medicine For Living  (Big Legal Mess, Oct 4)  D
- Vincent Neil Emerson, "Letters on the Marquee" Fried Chicken & Evil Women  (La Honda, Sep 13)
- Dalton Domino, "Cheap Spanish Wine" Songs From the Exile  (Lightning Rod, Aug 23)
- Spirit Family Reunion, "Would You Would" Ride Free  (SFR, Aug 9)
- Hellbound Glory, "Chico's Train" Scumbag Country  (Gearhead, 08)
- Leslie Stevens, "Sinner" Sinner  (LyricLand, Aug 23)
- Little Teeth, "Thinning Out" Redefining Home  (Gunner, 19)  D
- Centro-Matic, "All the Talkers" Candidate Waltz  (Undertow, 11)
- Angela Perley, "Let Go" 4:30  (Perley, 19)
- Jones Sisters, "Comet" Perpetual Grace Ltd  (Fat Possum, 19)  D
- My Morning Jacket, "The Dark" Tennessee Fire: 20th Anniversary  (Darla, 19)  D
^ RF Shannon, "Don't Be Shy" Rain on Dust  (Keeled Scales, 19)
- Esther Rose, "Lower 9 Valentine" You Made It This Far  (Father/Daughter, Aug 23)
- Mark Utley, "Jesus Wept" Bulletville  (Utley, 15)
- Larry & His Flask, "Pace That It Belongs (demo)" Everything Besides  (Xtra Mile, 19)
- Lillie Mae, "A Golden Year" Other Girls  (Third Man, Aug 16)
- Nels Andrews, "Table By the Kitchen" Pigeon and the Crow  (Andrews, Aug 9)
- Sam Baker, "Migrants (live)" Horses and Stars  (Baker, 19)  D
- Molly Sarle, "Suddenly" Karaoke Angel  (Partisan, Sep 20)
- David Wax Museum, "Equal in the Darkness" Line of Light  (Nine Mile, Aug 23)
- Angie McMahon, "Soon" Salt  (Dualtone, 19)
- Porter & the Pollies, "Rest These Bones" Porter & the Pollies  (TiAM, 13)
- Mike & the Moonpies, "Cheap Silver" Cheap Silver & Solid Country Gold  (Prairie Rose, 19)  D
- Bonny Light Horseman, "Bonny Light Horseman" single  (37d03d, 19)  D
- Chris Knight, "I'm William Callahan" Almost Daylight  (Drifter's Church, Oct 11)  D
- Angel Olsen, "All Mirrors" All Mirrors  (Jagjaguwar, Oct 4)

So typically in this little space I've been highlighting stuff that's been added to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster since our last Episode.  As we've found, this can lead to a sprawling tangle of words.  So starting today we'll be tempering our celebration a smidge, holding to maybe just five new records.  For a fuller accounting of what's happening when, you'll have to click the link.

This week, Joseph Arthur proclaimed his return to the fray with an October 11 project, an album about rebirth and survival called Come Back World.  October 4 seems a busy release day, boasting new CDs from Dallas Moore, a follow-up to last year's Mr Honky Tonk to be named Tryin' to Be a Blessing.  Also on that date we'll have The Walk, Bonnie Bishop's seventh album, and Medicine For Living, a debut from Alexa Rose on Big Legal Mess.  And on September 27 New Pornographers will issue In the Morse Code of Brake Lights.  Please enjoy this week's ROUTES-cast:

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