ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country & roots music
August 10, 2019
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Wanna hear something different? Introduce your stylus to the final song on Jason Hawk Harris' Love & the Dark (Bloodshot, August 23). It's called "Grandfather", and it portrays the artist encountering his elder at the Pearly Gates. The old man appears strong and vibrant, his youth restored courtesy of Heaven's magical elixir. Surely, thinks the narrator, my mother must be here as well? Death is undone, declares the grandfather in a passage as stirring as any gospel song. Your mother's over there / She is singing this song as she braids her black hair / Free from death and destruction, decay and despair / She's peaceful and lovely and breathing new air. A song that starts as a relatively straight folk or country piece is transformed into a transcendent orchestral outro with xylophone and strings and cascading percussion. It's genuinely breathtaking. Welcome to Jason Hawk Harris.

Harris' name has been on the lips of people who care about our kind of music since he was welcomed into the Bloodshot Records stable of artists. Prior to that, he had served with Show Ponies, and had released a promising 2017 EP, Formaldehyde Tobacco and Tulips. Promotional materials tell of how Love & the Dark grew out of a monumentally challenging period that saw the passing of his alcoholic mother, his father in unimaginable financial straits, and some of his own substance abuse issues. In that sense, Harris' debut full-length is roughly a concept album following the artist through the crucible that forges the mettle for a new man.

Not everything on Love & the Dark is as ambitious as "Grandfather". "Cussing at the Light" is your basic, well-executed song about reaching the bottom of a bottle as a coping mechanism. Jason Hawk Harris demonstrates an impressive range, a reach that serves him especially well near the top of his register like a more boyish Jason Isbell. With producer Andy Freeman (who also directed that introductory EP), he has populated his songs with a busy but satisfying ensemble including some soulful piano (Philip Glenn) and enthusiastic pedal steel (wielded by a couple contributors). "Confused" showcases that piano and a restlessly shuffling drum beat that mirrors Harris' own spirit: Why can't I be in love and be confused.  But Harris is a lyricist who refuses to settle with a generic rhyme scheme, making the collection a rowdier, more original ride: Certainty, uncertainty / Learning Greek between our sheets / Evolution, holy ghosts and entropy.

Even on those more standard offerings, Harris incorporates sonic elements that raise his music beyond the fray. With some classical training under his belt, he takes non-traditional routes to what is effectively still country music. "Smoke and the Stars" eases in on a drone of feedback and sparkling steel. The song alternates between an acoustic strum and full-out audio bombast with language that sounds like a cast-off from Revelations: Then they all turn into fireballs / Roll to the corners and burn up the walls / Now it's just us with the smoke and the stars / Holding hands in the dark. "Giving In" is the CD's most standard faire, serving as the bookmark announcing our departure into less commonly traveled musical territory. 

That second half of Love & the Dark is haunted by the spirit of Jason Hawk Harris' late mother, who apparently passed away from the effects of alcoholism. "Phantom Limb" begins with a striking image: I got this shirt / Smells like the viewing / Formaldehyde tobacco and tulips. And later: I feel your fingers comb through my hair / Open my eyes and there's no one there. As Harris acknowledges Mother you're dead, the song takes flight with spacebound pedal steel in a gorgeous, fiery extended outro. A manic rockabilly number, "I'm Afraid" journeys back to his impressionistic childhood and a picture of Jesus that his mother hung upon the wall, the specter of which didn't sit well with Harris: When I talk to Jesus / I'm gonna ask him to his face / Why'd you make this shit so hard / Lord it feels like I've been played.  In a record bursting with memorable passages, the song's piano interlude is tremendous.

Like Robert Ellis, Harris is grounded in the language of country and folk, even as he chooses to overrun those boundaries. "Blessed Interruption" begins at his mother's funeral: When they lower her down (in a clockwise motion, now) / It can't be too slow and it can't be too fast.  It couldn't have been easy to come of age with an alcoholic mother, but her death has apparently burned a fiery hole in Harris' heart. Whether struggling against his demons (Once upon a time I wasn't such a mess) or raging against the dark of his family's tragedy, music is an obvious catharsis for the songwriter, a vehicle to confront those ghosts and perhaps to achieve some tentative peace.  The musical wtf-ery contributes mightily to the overall vision of Love & the Dark.  Like Sturgill Simpson's groundbreaking Metamodern Sounds or Sailor's Guide, Jason Hawk Harris plants himself firmly in the soil of roots music, then uses the plot as a springboard for some iconic departures of his own.

- Silos, "Mary's Getting Married" Cuba  (Sonic Pyramid, 87)
- Mike & the Moonpies, "If You Want a Fool Around" Cheap Silver & Solid Country Gold  (Prairie Rose, 19)
- Beth Bombara, "I Only Cry When I'm Alone" Evergreen  (Bombara, 19)
- Tyler Childers, "Country Squire" Country Squire  (Hickman Holler, 19)
- Drive-by Truckers, "Marry Me" Decoration Day  (New West, 03)
- Vincent Neil Emerson, "Willie Nelson's Wall" Fried Chicken & Evil Women  (la Honda, Sep 13)
^ Jason Hawk Harris, "Smoke and the Stars" Love & the Dark  (Bloodshot, Aug 23)
- Kelsey Waldon, "Sunday's Children" White Noise / White Lines  (Oh Boy, Oct 4)
- Joseph Huber, "Rivers of Smoke" Moondog  (Huber, 19)
- Jeremy Pinnell, "It's OK Dear" Pine Mountain Sessions Vol 1 & 2  (OK, 19)
- Smooth Hound Smith, "Waiting For a Spark" Dog In a Manger  (SHS, 19)
- Devil Makes Three, "Wheels" single  (New West, 19)  D
- Rodney Crowell, "56 Fury (feat. Billy Gibbons)" TEXAS  (RC1, Aug 15)
- Bash & Pop, "Tiny Pieces" Friday Night is Killing Me  (Sire, 93)
- Jones Sisters, "Iris" Perpetual Grace Ltd  (Fat Possum, 19)
- Karen Jonas, "Country Songs" Lucky Revisited  (Yellow Brick, 19)
- Jordan Moser, "Down With Me" Long Night  (Keeled Scales, 19)
- Spirit Family Reunion, "Midnight Train" Ride For Free  (SFR, 19)
- Eilen Jewell, "These Blues" Gypsy  (Signature Sounds, Aug 16)
- Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, "You Want What You Can't Have (feat. Lori McKenna)" Dragons  (Magnolia, Aug 16)
- Whiskey Myers, "Bury My Bones" Whiskey Myers  (Wiggy Thump, Sep 27)
- Ryley Walker, "Summer Dress" Primrose Green  (Dead Oceans, 15)
- Nels Andrews, "South of San Gregario" Pigeon & the Crow  (Andrews, 19)
- Pieta Brown, "Hard Way" Freeway  (Righteous Babe, Sep 20)
- Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, "Educated Guesses" Take Heart Take Care  (Big Legal Mess, Aug 30)
- Magnolia Electric Co, "Shiloh" Josephine  (Secretly Canadian, 09)
- GospelbeacH, "Dark Angel" Let It Burn  (Alive Naturalsound, Oct 4)  D
- Jeff Tweedy, "Ten Sentences" WARMER  (dBPM, 19)
- Kacy & Clayton, "High Holiday" Carrying On  (New West, Oct 4)
- Jayhawks, "Stick In the Mud" Sound of Lies  (American, 97)

The last couple weeks I've commented in this space about the proliferation of forthcoming album announcements. Apparently, this week the factory ground to a halt. Very little was added to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, though we know it's just a temporary blockage in the pipes. Nevertheless, our mission remains strong, to journey through each of these worthy projects song-by-song, hoping that some of our passion and distraction might rub off.  This week's ROUTES-cast:

> ROUTES-casts from 2019 have been removed; subscribe to our Spotify page to keep up with all our new playlists!