ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
October 13, 2019
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

These days my attention is so much more devoted to stuff that stretches the boundaries of what folks think about americana, alt.country and roots music.  I've fallen hard for projects by Brittany Howard and Wilco, given my heart to Angel Olsen and to that Sturgill Simpson frankenstein.  This week, Adrienne Lenker and Big thief crushed me with their second superlative LP of 2019, Two Hands.  I watch my patience wane for some of the americana artists who once drove our thing.  Playlists continue to make good sense for me, though they still look like few others of their ilk.  Like I like.

So thanks to Ags Connolly for dragging my focus at least momentarily back to the country side of our equation with his sweetly trad third full-length, Wrong Again (Finstock, Nov 1).  I picked up on his previous record, Nothin' Unexpected, prior to its US debut in 2017:  It strikes me that too many retro country types look and sound like they're trying really hard to turn back the clock.  It can come across like a costume show, a dress-up party with a soundtrack that is a hollow estimation of the real thing.  Good thing we have folks like Ags Connolly on our side.  That's what I wrote back then.

And I'm sticking to my words.  As you might recall, our country music hero hails not from Nashville or Kentucky or Austin, but from Oxfordshire in England.  Not that this ever becomes evident on Wrong Again, a collection that sounds more like country music than anything you'll find on the country airwaves (or americana, for that matter).  Connolly's self-produced songs land so effortlessly on the ears that it might take a couple tunes to realize how considerable this feat is.

Ags Connolly isn't trying to move country music forward, he's not an innovative sort.  Matter of fact, his origin story says it wasn't until he heard some of the classics that he knew where his own songs might fit in.  Years of honing his craft in workshops and in bars, listening deeply to folks like David Allen Coe and Johnny Paycheck boosted his skills and his confidence.  While Connolly's voice stirs up ghosts from George Jones to Randy Travis, his new sessions speak to an emerging originality that lifts Wrong Again beyond the realm of tributes and imitators.

We'll begin at the end.  The CD's only upbeat cut, "Sad Songs Forever" speaks to Connolly's inspiration in the same way as his earlier track, "When Country Was Proud".  Eamon McLoughlin's fiddle shines alongside pedal steel:  Maybe all you have to be is lonesome / Maybe all you have to feel is pain, he sings on the song that wouldn't sound out of place breaking through the static of a 1970s AM station.  It hints at the secret to the perennial success of country weepers like those that populate Connolly's LPs, the fact that sometimes it feels okay to entertain our melancholy monsters.

Much of Wrong Again trades in sounds from the border, owing largely to the evocative accordion of the Mavericks' Michael Guerra.  "I'll Say When" is an impeccable example, strings and keys tripping across the floor in support of Connolly's immediately appealing vocal delivery:  I'll go through this again / And I guess I'll survive it then / How long it lasts will depend / So just pour and I'll say when.

Songs are reliably set on the empty road or firmly wedged into a corner booth in the bar.  Connolly's thoughts turn to lost loves and past transgressions on cuts like the gorgeous "Lonely Nights in Austin": I had my share of 3ams in Magnolia Cafe / And I got lost down on Red River before I knew any other way ... I had my lonely nights in Austin / Before I ever met you.  See also "Then and Now", an acoustic showcase for the singer's priceless voice, reaching from the floorboards to the rafters and capable of wringing tears from the driest eyes.

The title track shuffles along amiably, In trusting your heart / And believing once more / This time you'll win / And you won't hurt anymore / You're wrong again.  One wonders if Connolly challenges himself to reach for new levels of misfortune with each cut, and the downcast spirit might prove overwhelming if it weren't delivered in such a consummate fashion, from tight but restrained instrumentation to lyrics that never stray into exaggeration.  The smooth "Say It Out Loud" rings true like a classic Guy Clark story, and "What Were You Gonna Do About It" risks a lingering look into the stranger in the mirror behind the bar:  There's a tremble in your hand / There's a picture in your mind / How much can it withstand / How many years will slide by.

So thanks and thanks again to Ags Connolly, for broadcasting these masterfully witsful vignettes from across the proverbial pond directly into our hearts.  Wrong Again can readily compete with records with three times the production cost, its humble odes to heartbreak cutting deeper than any other act reaching for the country golden ring.  Ags may be building his reputation from several time zones to the East, but they hit more truly than stuff written much closer to home.  He's not just one of the finest country songsmiths from England, he's fast becoming one of our best, period.

- Charlie Parr, "Twenty-Five Forty-One" Charlie Parr  (Red House, 19)
- Julien Baker, "Tokyo" single  (Sub Pop, 19)  D
- Dead South, "Broken Cowboy" Sugar & Joy  (Six Shooter, 19)
- Whippoorwill, "California" Nature of Storms  (Whippoorwill, Oct 15)
- Mount Moriah, "Social Wedding Ring" Mount Moriah  (Holidays for Quince, 11)
- Bonnie Prince Billy, "In Good Faith" I Have Made a Place  (Drag City, Nov 15)  D
- Marcus King, "The Well" El Dorado  (Fantasy, Jan 17)  D
- Jeb Loy Nichols, "Last Train Home" June is Short July is Long  (Compass, 19)
- Eric Bachmann, "Misinformation Age' single  (Merge, 19)  D
- Chris Knight, "Send It On Down (feat. LeeAnn Womack)" Almost Daylight  (Drifters Church, 19)
- Marah, "Formula Cola Dollar Draft" Let's Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later On Tonight  (Marah, 04)
- John Calvin Abney, "When the Dark Winds Blow" Safe Passage  (Black Mesa, 19)
- Trigger Hippy, "Paving the Road" Full Circle and Then Some  (Turkey Grass, 19)
- Michael Chapman, "White House" Americana I & II  (Mooncrest, 19)
- Cody Jinks, "Someone To You" After the Fire  (Late August, 19)
- Big Thief, "Two Hands" Two Hands  (4AD, 19)
- Tim Barry, "Bent Creek" Roads to Richmond  (Chunksaah, 19)  D
- Steve Earle, "South Nashville Blues" I Feel Alright  (Warner, 96)
- GA-20, "One Night Man" Lonely Soul  (Karma Chief, Oct 18)
- Kelsey Waldon, "Very Old Barton" White Noise/White Lines  (Oh Boy, 19)
- Likely Culprits, "Won't Do That No More" Likely Culprits  (Big Gassed, 19)
- Lucero, "Always Been You (acoustic)" Before the Ghosts: Acoustic Demos  (Liberty & Lament, 19)
- Twain, "Inner Beauty" Adventure  (Keeled Scales, 19)  D
- Alexa Rose, "Leaving Kind" Medicine For Living  (Big Legal Mess, 19)
- Whiskey Myers, "California to Caroline" Whiskey Myers  (Wiggy Thump, 19)
- Son Volt, "Mystifies Me" Trace  (Rhino, 95)
- Rachel Harrington, "Susanna" Hush the Wild Horses  (Harrington, 19)
- Vincent Neil Emerson, "Best Side of Luck" Fried Chicken & Evil Women  (la Honda, 19)
- Jamestown Revival, "Operator" single  (Jamestown, 19)  D
- Souled American, "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends" Nothing Left to Lose: Tribute to Kris Kristofferson  (Incidental, 02)

So nothing monumental added to our Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster this week.  It's just that time when our beloved industry applies the brakes a bit to allow for holiday traffic.  Norah Jones' country-leaning side act, Puss n Boots will be sharing a holiday-themed EP on October 25.  Featuring a couple originals and some trads, Dear Santa marks the trio's first material in more than five years.  The reliably excellent Cornelius Chapel Records will release a full-length from Birmingham, Alabama's Sarah Lee Langford on November 8.  Two-Hearted Rounder boasts backing from members of Dexateens and Vulture Whale.  And celebrated blues-rock bandleader Marcus King has announced his debut solo record.  Produced by Dan Auerbach, El Dorado will land on store shelves on January 17. 

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