ROUTES & BRANCHES  
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
April 5, 2020
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust


There are very few established artists for whom I've published an appreciation for every album they've released.  I've never paged back to count, but I believe I've addressed the last four of John Moreland's records.  Isbell's got a pretty strong streak going too.  Caleb Caudle's last three CDs have appeared in these pages.  While Moreland, Isbell and Caudle are each cut from a different cloth, I hold all three in the highest estimation among americana songwriters.

Caleb Caudle has just issued his eighth record.  Better Hurry Up arrives in the wake of a trio of praiseworthy projects, the most recent of which was 2018's Crushed Coins.  The new collection finds Caudle and his wife/manager pulling up stakes and moving from his native North Carolina to the bright lights of Nashville. There, he's connected with current Jayhawks stringman John Jackson.  Together, they've rambled about 30 minutes outside of Music City to Hendersonville and the Cash Cabin.  I've always been a believer that where a session takes place can go a long ways towards determining the spirit of the recordings.  Case in point, some of the essential collections that have been generated at Cash Cabin, including stuff by Todd Snider, Mavis Staples and John Prine, not to mention Johnny Cash's own seminal American Recordings.

Especially in the case of 2016's Carolina Ghost, I've always been impressed by the simplicity with which Caudle plies his trade, gathering around him just the right sort of accompaniment with which to present his stripped down songs.  Better Hurry Up happens to be his most musically creative collection to date, set to tape largely live by a dream band of Dennis Crouch, Russ Pahl, Laur Joamets, Pat Sansone and more.  All folks who make a living by using very few noises to say a lot.  Despite the relatively crowded Cabin, Caudle lets that simplicity shine on songs like "Front Porch".

The evocative tune finds the writer hearkening back to the hallmarks of his Carolina youth:  The country station crackled low / And I learned just what words could do.  The familiar fall roads, the smell of twenty years of cigarettes in the cab of a truck, the tree I carved my name into / Has been cut down to its roots.  Even with the six-hundred mile move to Nashville, those signs and signifiers of the South are rich in Caudle's music.

But the prevailing spirit on his new sessions acknowledges a shadowed lining, a sometimes harsh reality to the region's mythology.  "Dirty Curtain" cruises on a swampy drone, and alludes to nefarious goings on behind closed doors.  Joined by John Paul White, there's a hint of Tony Joe White (no relation) in Caudle's covert reportage.  Similarly, the title track casts a bluesy spell, reminding us that It's just as much about the places you go / As it is about the ones you don't.  Dennis' Crouch's deceptively steady bass and Laur Joamets' gravelly guitar muddy up the mix just right, even as Caudle writes some light into just about every song.  One of the LP's strongest moments, "Reach Down" addresses our shared responsibility to lift up those around us.  With percussion echoing a back alley trashcan, he sings: It's who we choose to be / When there's nobody keeping the score.

Courtney Marie Andrews and Elizabeth Cook contribute complimentary backing vocals throughout Better Hurry Up, and the band is joined in spots by Gary Louris and Mickey Raphael, whose unmistakable harmonica sparks the countryfied "Let's Get".  Mostly live to tape, Caleb Caudle is able to downplay any celebrity spotlighting by simply suggesting these Cash Cabin sessions as a gathering of friends with musical tendencies.  He's tagged classics by Leon Russell, Little Feat, JJ Cale and the Band as touchstones for the proceedings, though those influences are in service of the songwriter's own pitch-perfect instincts.  Again with John Paul White, "Call It a Day" suggests a bluesy late-period Dylan, ignited by a dirty guitar solo.

More than those legendary spirits, beyond the ghosts that may haunt Cash Cabin, Caleb Caudle's new album simply builds on the steady progress of his work over the past decade.  Like Hiss Golden Messenger's MC Taylor, his songs are confident in their use of the Southern vernacular, be it country or blues, gospel or soul.  And coming out of the fog of addiction, stepping into the redemption of relationship, Caudle shares an abiding positivity and encouragement with listeners.  Even as we are aware of what lies behind The Dirty Curtain, we're advised to go forward and to Be the light.  On the lovely lullaby-esque "Bigger Oceans" that brings the collection to a close, Caudle leaves us with the comforting reminder, Just being born is a longshot / Don't forget the reward is in the risk.

- Hiss Golden Messenger, "Biloxi (live)" Forward Children  (Merge, 20)  D
- Bettye LaVette, "I Hold No Grudge" Blackbirds  (Verve, Jul 10)  D
^ Caleb Caudle, "Reach Down" Better Hurry Up  (Baldwin County Public Records, 20)
- Ruthie Collins, "Cold Comfort" Cold Comfort  (Sidewalk, 20)  D
- Okkervil River, "Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me Down" Black Sheep Boy  (Jagjaguwar, 05)
- Pokey LaFarge, "Bluebird" Rock Bottom Rhapsody  (New West, Apr 10)
- Tender Things, "New Mission Bell" How You Make a Fool  (Ebaugh, 20)
- Ashley McBryde, "Shut Up Sheila" Never Will  (Warner, 20)
- Brian Wright & the Sneakups, "Poor Little Genius" Lapse of Luxury  (Cafe Rooster, May 8)
- Nathaniel Rateliff & Night Sweats, "Don't Care Darlin'"  Fug Yep No. 3  (Rateliff, 20)  D
- Daniel Romano, "Time Forgot (To Change My Heart) (live)" Okay Wow  (You've Changed, 20)
- Chatham County, "Free Again" Strange Fascination  (Yep Roc, Apr 24)
- Western Centuries, "Every Time It's Raining" Call the Captain  (Free Dirt, 20)
- Drag the River, "Wichita Skyline" Drag the River  (Xtra Mile, 13)
- Waxahatchee, "Fire" Saint Cloud  (Merge, 20)
- Jess Williamson, "Infinite Scroll" Sorceress  (Mexican Summer, May 15)
- Damien Jurado, "Alice Hyatt" What's New Tomboy  (Mama Bird, May 1)
- James Elkington, "Sleeping Me Awake" Ever-Roving Eye  (Paradise of Bachelors, 20)
- Logan Ledger, "Lights of San Francisco" Logan Ledger  (Rounder, 20)
- Nikki & Phantom Callers, "Everybody's Going To Hell" Everybody's Going To Hell (But You and Me)  (Speake, 20)  D
- American Aquarium, "Me + Mine (Lamentations)" Lamentations  (New West, May 1)
- Kelly Joe Phelps, "Red Light Nickel" Tunesmith Retrofit  (Rounder, 06)
- M Ward, "Heaven's Nail & Hammer" Migration Stories  (Anti, 20)
- Lilly Hiatt, "Walking Proof" Walking Proof  (New West, 20)
- Porter, "Hardest Healin'" This Red Mountain  (Porter, 15)
- Nick Lowe, "Lay It On Me Baby" Lay It On Me EP  (Yep Roc, Jun 5)  D
- Shelby Lynne, "I Got You" Shelby Lynne  (Everso, Apr 17)
- Marshall Chapman, "Tennessee Blues" Songs I Can't Live Without  (Chapman, 20)  D
- Dave Alvin, "Rich Man's Town" Blue Blvd  (Concord, 91)
- Two Gallants, "Fly Low Carrion Crow" Two Gallants  (Saddle Creek, 07)


Artists and labels seem to be wary of committing to a record release date, for obvious reasons.  This week, we moved some key albums around on our Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster.  Corb Lund's Agricultural Tragic had been expected later this month, but it has been delayed until June 26 via New West.  Chuck Prophet's Land That Time Forgot fell to August 21 (Yep Roc).  In more positive news, Chatham County Line's Strange Fascination  (also Yep Roc) will hit shelves on April 24, a full three weeks earlier than previously announced.  Also offering glimpses of hope are Marshall Chapman, whose 14th CD, Songs I Can't Live Without finds her covering some personal favorites - originally due May 15, but magically streaming this week.  And Nick Lowe once again fronts Los Straitjackets for a June 5 EP, Lay It On Me  (Yep Roc too).  Your reliably weekly ROUTES-cast:

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