ROUTES & BRANCHES 
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
September 1, 2019
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

It's forecast to reach 97 damn degrees this afternoon here in Colorado's Front Range (home of Routes & Branches).  But in my heart it's "almost Fall" - once we reach the shores of September, I gladly shut the door on Summer.  Yesterday I caught myself considering a list of my favorite songs that have reached the pop radio charts in 2019.  Then I realized we still have three months of music to go.  But since I'm a List Making Fool, here are my five favorite records from the past four weeks of hot hot heat (in order of appearance):

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT AUGUST?!!
Tyler Childers, Country Squire  (Hickman Holler, Aug 2)
Mike & the Moonpies, Cheap Silver & Solid Country Gold  (Prairie Rose, Aug 2)
Jason Hawk Harris, Love & the Dark  (Bloodshot, Aug 23)
Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, Take Heart Take Care  (Big Legal Mess, Aug 30)
Joan Shelley, Like the River Loves the Sea  (No Quarter, Aug 30)

Time to drag out my sweaters (as the world burns).

I do this from time to time;  I check on social media to see what's up with favorite artists who I haven't heard from in awhile, just to see if there's anything in the works.  Last week I checked up on Austin's Kill County, only to find that they'd dropped a full-length album just the previous week.  I first discovered their deep grained strain of country-grass in 2013, when their Dust in Wire appeared on my favorites list.  2015's Broken Glass In the Sun tightened things up just a bit with regards to writing and production.  The band, fronted by Josh James and Ringo, had called Nebraska home during those years, even as members spread to different regions of the country (or, in one case, different hemispheres).  Their center of operations seems to have shifted south to Texas for Everything Must Die, though Kill County remain one of the best kept secrets in our kind of music.

The album's title is ripped from its most hell-bent cut, a boot stomping acknowledgement of the futility of the blue collar life: Everything must die / And boy you ain't looking right.  It's the sort of nitro-driven 'grass that's just the thing to scratch an itch, country and punk shoulder-to-bony shoulder as fiddle, banjo, guitar and drums jostle for the listener's attention.  Kill County aren't the only band that favors an alt qualifier by way of introduction, though they write and play with such an apparent authenticity that they might as well be.

As the title might suggest, Everything Must Die isn't a feelgood CD.  As one song declares, The whole damn world is crashing down / Right before my eyes.  Kill County don't outright blame the president, the economy or the patriarchy, though "A Little More Blood" follows some of the fault down to the country's perennial state of war.  Credit much of the act's effectiveness to their direct approach, playing an unadorned strain of country propelled by a punk spirit and a songwriter's dedication to lyrics that matter.  While we were sleeping they built a beast / Out of fire, gears and skin, Josh sings.

The two frontmen alternate vocals, and share in an unexpectedly tight harmony even as you'd be hard pressed to find two singers with more divergent styles.  Josh James' deep throaty growl weaves with Ringo's more traditional high country croon; both are remarkably expressive. "Angel of Mercy" lays a sweet pedal steel line atop Ringo's vocal, suspicious of the motives that drive our engines and drown out the still small voice of peace and quiet:  So get me out of this town / Get me out of this country / Let me lay here on this floor just as quiet as a wing / I'm sick of the way / We worship violence and fame.

It's this need for peace and a sense of betrayal that lies beneath much of Everything Must Die.  Kill County are a deceptively thoughtful bunch, entirely grounded in the world of the working class, but unafraid to drop some French existentialism on "Sartre's Blues".  The downtempo tune begins with Josh remarking There's fruit flies in the kitchen fucking up all my food, but ends at the bookshelf:  I read a book on being and existential dread / If we're all just suffering for nothing babe then why get out of bed ... This half-blind Frenchman's getting to me.  Not necessarily the stuff to bump at your next backyard barbecue.  Nevertheless, there's not a drop of pretension or detachment to the new collection.  Kill County's genuine deep blacks and blues sweat from every pore and ring from every banjo, dobro and guitar string.

Appropriately, Everything Must Die is generally a quieter album, its songs more reflective and probably more personal than much of the outfit's earlier work.  Any social commentary is couched in the travails of everyday existence.  Interspersed with those heavier cuts are some genuinely pretty sounds.  See especially "Oblivion Blues".  Josh closes the CD letting the piano and fiddle shine through, and "Coyote Trail" is a devastating but beautiful acoustic country ballad.  There's also some heartfelt sentiment on the session, songs like "Wolves" that recognize how these bad times can seep down into our homes and the relationships we rely on for strength and support:  If only my arms could keep you from harm / And my hands keep the wolves from the door.  The uptempo "Lovers Without Love" plays like an early Dwight Yoakam track, a Bakersfield inspired racket the finds a heart of gold on the way home from the bars: I used to need things no good man should need / But I can't regret one single misstep / Because every drunken one led me onto you.

As bleak as Kill County's fifth album can be, Ringo and Josh James deliver hope the way we like it here at R&B.  That's through smart, sturdily-built songs that speak honestly about how things are.  There's some real redemption, some small victory in music that matters, even when the message is that we'll try again tomorrow:  I'm gonna follow my heart / Straight back to bed / And try again in the afternoon / When I ain't shaking so bad.


- McCarthy Trenching, "Barroom and I (Sure Miss You)" Fresh Blood and Piano  (McCarthy, 19)
^ Kill County, "Lovers Without Love" Everything Must Die  (573668 Records, 19)
- Jesse Malin, "Dead On (feat. Lucinda Williams)" Sunset Kids  (Wicked Cool, 19)
- Pernice Brothers, "Mint Condition" Spread the Feeling  (Ashmont, Sep 6)  D
- Red House Painters, "Michigan" Old Ramon  (Sub Pop, 01)
- First Aid Kit, "Random Rules" single  (Columbia, 19)
- Ags Connolly, "Wrong Again (You Lose a Life)" Wrong Again  (Finstock, Nov 1)  D
- Eilen Jewell, "Miles to Go" Gypsy  (Signature Sounds, 19)
- Whiskey Myers, "Houston County Sky" Whiskey Myers  (Wiggy Thump, Sep 27)
- Jon Dee Graham, "Mother Blues" Messenger: Tribute to Ray Wylie Hubbard  (Eight 30, 19)
- Joan Shelley, "The Fading" Like the River Loves the Sea  (No Quarter, 19)
- Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster, "Plenty Wonder" Take Heart Take Care  (Big Legal Mess, 19)
- Iron & Wine, "Trapeze Swinger" Around the Well  (Sub Pop, 09)
- John Calvin Abney, "Maybe Happy" Safe Passage  (Black Mesa, Sep 27)
- Paul Cauthen, "Prayed for Rain" Room 41  (Lightning Rod, Sep 6)'
- Jason Hawk Harris, "Giving In" Love & the Dark  (Bloodshot, 19)
- Matthew Ryan, "Are You the Matador" Fallen Ash & Embers  (Ryan, Oct 4)  D
- Patty Griffin, "Ruby's Arms" Come On Up To the House: Women Sing Waits  (Dualtone, Nov 22)
- Will Johnson, "Necessitarianism (Fred Merkle's Blues)" Wire Mountain  (Keeled Scales, Sep 27)
- Amy LaVere, "Shipbuilding" Painting Blue  (Nine Mile, 19)
- Tom VandenAvond, "Big Two Hearted River" Common Law  (Hillgrass Bluebilly, 19)  D
- My Morning Jacket, "Old Sept Blues" Tennessee Fire: 20th Anniversary  (Darla, 19)
- Larry & His Flask, "Full Time Job (Do What You Want) (demo)" Everything Besides  (Xtra Mile, 19)
- Sam Baker, "Waves (live)" Horses and Stars  (Baker, 19)
- Caleb Caudle, "Howlin' At the Moon" single  (Caudle, 19)  D
- Felice Brothers, "Hey Hey Revolver" Tonight at the Arizona  (Loose, 07)
- Vetiver, "To Who Knows Where" Up On High  (Mama Bird, Nov 1)  D
- Old Crow Medicine Show, "Methamphetamine (live)" Live at the Ryman  (OCMS, Oct 4)  D
- Dan Auerbach, "Street Walkin'" Keep It Hid  (Nonesuch, 09)
- Candi Staton, "He Called Me Baby" Stand By Your Man  (Parlophone, 71)


Speaking of coming across surprise projects from favorite artists, looks like Tom VandenAvond released Common Law in July without telling me.  When October comes, expect a new EP from Matthew Ryan, Fallen Ash & Embers.  I don't know that we've ever covered David Newbould's solo stuff, but I'm sure he's played on several records we have supported over the years.  We'll try to rectify that when Newbould issues Sin & Redemption on October 18.  British honky tonk master Ags Connolly was virtually unknown when we started sharing stuff from his last CD.  He'll continue his stateside onslaught with Wrong Again on the first of November.  That very same day we'll welcome another in a series of Andy Cabic's remarkably consistent Vetiver projects, Up On High will appear on Mama Bird Records.  Finally, while there's been no date mentioned yet, we're happy to add Caleb Caudle to our short list of 2020 projects on the musical horizon.  You can find out so much more just by clicking A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster.