ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
February 2, 2020
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT JANUARY?!!

God but January was a long month.  Think I counted 35 days there.  S'pose that just means more days dawning with the possibility of new music.  January 35th, the final day of the ordeal, brought nearly twenty releases to consider for our list of favorites.  So the month more than earned its keep, posing the difficult challenge of selecting just five records to highlight.  So I chose six (in order of appearance):

Futurebirds, Teamwork  (VL4L, Jan 15)
Terry Allen & Panhandle Mystery Band, Just Like Moby Dick  (Paradise of Bachelors, Jan 24)
Bart Budwig, Another Burn On the Astroturf  (Fluff & Gravy, Jan 24)
Bonny Light Horseman, Bonny Light Horseman  (37d03d, Jan 24)
Drive-by Truckers, The Unraveling  (ATO, Jan 31)
Tre Burt, Caught It From the Rye  (Oh Boy, Jan 31)

I would also throw in an enthusiastic vote in the direction of Ben Watt's eloquent Storm Damage and Have We Met from Destroyer, a pair of un-roots albums that deserve your attention this month.  And also Frances Quinlan Likewise.

The first time I remember noticing Tre Burt, I was wading in the internet in search of information about Haley Heynderickx for a Spring 2018 piece I was publishing in praise of her I Need To Start a Garden release.  I discovered a duet between Heynderickx and Burt, a mesmerizing take on Jackson Browne's "These Days", recorded on a picturesque street somewhere in Munich.  The two have shared stages over the years, as well as sharing a common commitment to developing their own respective voice in the crowded field of contemporary folk music.

Tre Burt has taken the proverbial road less traveled to his first full-length project.  In addition to living in Sacramento and Portland for a time, he followed a romantic whim to Australia.  While Down Under, he shared his Takes From the Dungeon, an EP recorded on my old shitty Samsung that couldn't hardly do nuthin' but record voice memos.  2018 brought a pair of under-successful crowdfunding campaigns that would eventually lead to Caught It From the Rye.  Burt's debut full-length caught the attention of Oh Boy Records and co-owner John Prine, who have just reissued the collection.  It bears repeating that Tre Burt is just one of two artists Oh Boy has signed to their roster in the past fifteen years (the second being Kelsey Waldon).

While the roots of Burt's brand of impressionistic, rambling folk can be followed to classic writers like Ochs and Dylan, he has earned his stripes and honed his instrument through countless miles on the road.  What emerges in his collection has been years in the making, presenting the artist as a fully formed performer.  That said, Caught It From the Rye is as unadorned as the photo that graces its jacket.  The CD's most trad-folk cut, "Undead God of War" features only Burt's bluntly strummed acoustic and train whistle harmonica.  Not a storyteller or a straightforward lyricist, his verses are poetic and driven by imagery:  Up in the clouds, the eagle flies so mournfully / From its claws, the head of a boar spills blood on Main Street.

Other songs introduce Burt's acoustic fingerpicking.  "What Good" finds the narrator remarking on fleeting youth, pulled along the currents of time: Make amends, tell your childhood friend they were something to you / Cos it gets dark.  While his playing is not especially ornate, Burt's vocals are distinct, gruff like Ryan Bingham but with a meter and phrasing all his own.  "Get It By Now" is a highlight, a pretty acoustic cut that allows room for that expressive keening delivery:  It's been a long time since I've had you near / Now you're the bell in my pocket that chimes out of fear.

The most intriguing moments of Caught It From the Rye are those that speak to a more contemporary take on Tre Burt's sound.  The title song adds a bluesy lilt to one of his most impressionistic lyrics:  I need savin' by the grace of god / But I know he's off creatin' / Another one like me / Just a cage bird sing prison tunes to pass the time.  Listeners might hear Benjamin Booker in "Real You", introducing more aggressive guitars and a present day take on relationships.  The album's strongest cut, "Franklin's Tunnel" includes a loose and lovely vocal accompaniment from Julie Baenziger of Sea of Bees along with slide guitar:  Tobacco and whiskey next to me / I take a drag of my Zig-Zag and have a drink.  It offers an intriguing glimpse at what might be next for Burt if he opens his studio doors a bit wider for further collaboration.

For now, Tre Burt's Caught It From the Rye serves as a great opening volley, a collection that ushers in an artist with great integrity and his own approach for setting the world to song.  His rawness and lack of compromise place him alongside others like Hayley Heynderickx and Bedounine, forces working for good in the world of folk music:  You are the light in the dark / No the moth don't cross without you / And your luminous rings / Oh my kerosene dreams ...


- Drive-by Truckers, "Rosemary With a Bible and a Gun" The Unraveling  (ATO, 20)
- Savage Radley, "Little River Town" Kudzu  (Slough Water, 17)
- Ashley McBryde, "Hang In There Girl" Never Will  (Warner, Apr 3)
- Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, "Medicine Hat" King of This Town  (BARK, 20)
- Andrew Combs, "Slow Road To Jesus" All These Dreams  (Coin, 15)
- Posssessed by Paul James, "Your White Stained Dress" As We Go Wandering  (Wert, 20)
- Grace Pruitt, "Loving Her" Expectations  (Rounder, Feb 21)
- Son Little, "Mahalia" Aloha  (Anti, 20)
- Townes Van Zandt, "Cowboy Junkies Lament" No Deeper Blue  (TVZ, 04)
- Black Lips, "Rumbler" Sing In a World That's Falling Apart  (Fire, 20)  D
- Cave Flowers, "Best Lonesome Friend" Cave Flowers  (Hard Bark, 20)
- Panhandlers, "This Flatland Life" Panhandlers  (Next Waltz, Mar 6)
- Gill Landry, "Different Tune" Skeleton At the Banquet  (Loose, 20)
- Wood Brothers, "Satisfied" Kingdom In My Mind  (HoneyJar, 20)
- Reigning Sound, "Pretty Girl" Home For Orphans  (Merge, 05)
^ Tre Burt, "Franklin's Tunnel (feat. Sea of Bees)" Caught It From the Rye  (Oh Boy, 20)
- Lilly Hiatt, "P-Town" Walking Proof  (New West, Mar 27)
- Rev Shawn Amos & Brotherhood, "Counting Down the Days" Blue Sky  (Amos, Apr 17)  D
- Shelby Lynne, "Here I Am" Shelby Lynne  (Everso, Apr 17)  D
- Reckless Kelly, "I Only See You With My Eyes Closed" American Girls  (No Big Deal, May 22)  D
- Elijah Ocean, "Behind the Times" Blue Jeans & Barstools  (Ocean, May 1)  D
- Those Darlins, "Hung Up On Me" Those Darlins  (Oh Wow Dang, 08)
- Mark Erelli, "A Little Kindness" Blindsided  (Erelli, Mar 27)  D
- Brandy Clark, "I'll Be the Sad Song" Your Life Is a Record  (Warner, Mar 6)
- Durand Jones & the Indications, "Young Americans" single  (Dead Oceans, 20)  D
- Terry Allen & Panhandle Mystery Band, "All These Blues Go Walkin' By (feat. Shannon McNally)" Just Like Moby Dick  (Paradise of Bachelors, 20)
- Arbor Labor Union, "Crushed by Fear Destroyer" New Petal Instants  (Arrowhawk, Feb 7)
- Innocence Mission, "Brothers Williams Said" See You Tomorrow  (Therese, 20)
- David Ramirez, "That Ain't Love" Fables  (Sweetworld, 15)
- Left Arm Tan, "Mexicali Run" Left Arm Tan  (LAT, 20)

Some weeks it's all we can do to keep pace with the mad rush of new release announcements for A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster.  Then there are weeks like this past one, weeks that leave us plenty of time for reflection an deep life inventory.  Mark Erelli guarantees a fuller, more hooky sound on Blindsided  (March 27).  Swampy is the word of the day for Rev Shawn Amos & the Brotherhood as they proclaim the April 17 debut of Blue Sky.  Teddy Thompson's forthcoming CD is called Heartbreaker Please, expected on the 24th of April.  Per the advance publicity, Thompson finds inspiration from the Everly Brothers and the classic three minute pop songs of the 1950s.  Towards the end of 2019, Elijah Ocean released Back To the Lander, a project he'd kept on the back burner since its 2017 recording.  He'll waste no time in sharing the follow-up, Blue Jeans & Bar Stools, hitting shelves wherever music matters on May 1.  Finally, we're eager to hear the double LP Reckless Kelly has planned for May 22.  American Girls and American Jackpot find the longtime alt.country outfit making up for their four year absence from the recording studio.  

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