ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

April 12, 2020

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Who knew?!  Who knew back in the dawning days of 2020 that most of us would be holed up in our houses for weeks (months?) on end?  That the playing field for artists who play our kind of music would be leveled so neatly, with relative stars and struggling writers alike forced to stream their music from the confines of a crowded basement?  Releasing patchwork acoustic covers of this song or that, heaping their praise upon the memory of the Patron Saint of Contemporary Songwriters, John Prine.

At about one-third of our way through 2020, we look back on records whose release was planned to herald a tour that would last through SXSW, through regional festivals and ushering in the early days of Spring.  I've seen other writers shrug in response to the year-to-date, though I'm quite pleased with the sounds and singers that have kept us company and provided the soundtrack to our present retreat.  The Routes & Branches list below is diverse, touching upon elements of country and folk, rock and soul, our ten favorite things of the past four plus months (listed in order of appearance):


WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT THE FiRST 1/3 of 2020?!!  

Bonny Light Horseman, Bonny Light Horseman  (37d03d Records, Jan 24)

Drive-by Truckers, The Unraveling  (ATO, Jan 31)

John Moreland, LP5  (Old Omens, Feb 7)

Nathaniel Rateliff, And It's Still Alright  (Stax, Feb 14)

Gabe Lee, Honky Tonk Hell  (Torrez, Mar 13)

Lilly Hiatt, Walking Proof  (New West, Mar 27)

Waxahatchee, Saint Cloud  (Merge, Mar 27)

Tender Things, How You Make a Fool  (Ebaugh, Mar 27)

Caleb Caudle, Better Hurry Up  (Soundly, Apr 3)

Ashley McBryde, Never Will  (Warner, Apr 3)


I suppose one comment you could make about the list is that (with the exception of Tender Things), these are mostly front-line artists.  Truckers and Moreland, Rateliff and Caudle are all veteran recipients of R&B praise.  However, our role here is more to shed light on new and lesser known acts, even as we support those excellent releases from familiar names.  Names like Nathan Kalish, who has just shared his tenth record, Songs For Nobody (Winter Wildfires), even though this Episode marks his Routes & Branches debut.

Kalish has been a career road warrior, a touring veteran who jots down ideas between venues and keeps his ears tuned for stories.  It's a lifestyle handed down from his father, who served as an itinerant missionary.  Word has it that the wide-roaming ride sharing driver only settled down when Lyft required their employees to operate in just one city.  Kalish selected Nashville as his base.  Then built a record that sounds like Nashville should.

Nathan Kalish produced Songs For Nobody on his own, which is remarkable given the fullness and the consistency of the final product.  The band he's assembled is a pairing of his touring compadres and invited studio guests, including Adam Kurtz on pedal steel and Laur Joamets on guitar.  Every tune and every groove is packed with sound, from the frequent chorus of backing singers to the keys and horns that generously pepper the tracks.

Like Daniel Romano or Robert Ellis, he wields a complete working knowledge of what's come before in country music, even if he prefers to operate slightly outside the norm.  Of all things, "Delta Woman" grew from a lyrical fragment left behind by Johnny Cash.  For the first two-minutes, it's a fine and faithful country throwback, with clip-clop percussion and your daily allowance of pedal steel.  But then a curtain is pulled aside, the sound fades and twists, then returns for a couple more minutes of truly cosmic country.

It's just one of a number of little curve balls on a record well stocked with interesting mid-song rhythmic changes and extended instrumental outros.  But those relative diversions never interfere from Kalish's shining country and folk songcraft.  "Independence Day" is a mini-epic, an acoustic ballad that unspools into a drum-driven electric rave-up sparked by fiddle and steel:  All gave some and some gave all / But the ones that did make it home / Are getting drunk alone in a garage, or in a basement shaking.  Almost a companion piece, the midtempo honky-tonker "Pam & Tim" takes the pulse of the American dream as it clouds over in the lives of the titular couple.  Kalish paints a picture light years from Norman Rockwell's USA:  Pam she works mixing them powder coats / All day she's breathing in chemicals / For fifteen years, she's been coughing up strange colors.

My uncommonly busy week didn't allow me to explore some of the further reaches of Nathan Kalish's catalog to develop an appreciation for his evolution as an artist and a songwriter.  Regarded on its own merits, Songs For Nobody portrays him as an original and accomplished lyricist and an artist unafraid of ranging across sub-genres.  "Mighty River" is a spirited gospel-folk singalong sweetened with nimble bluegrass instrumentation.  That mandolin extends its stay for "Don't Confuse Me", an affecting duet with Lucy B Cochran, a revelation of a vocalist who's previously worked with Local Memories and the country-metal duo Stump Tail Dolly.  There's a healthy degree of self-deprecation running through Kalish's writing, a glimmer of which can be caught on the title track.  The infectious rockabilly guitar number dispels the myth of the glamorous life of a touring musician:  My career is like an accident / We passed back up on the highway. 

I've lodged "Kalimotxo" into my folder for consideration among my favorite songs of the year.  Framed by a fine vocal from Kalish and a melodic instrumental arrangement, the song epitomizes the real eclectic appeal of a record that threatens to disappear under the waves of our present plague and pandemonium.  Without the ability to put the record in his trunk and to set off on the familiar backroads of the nation, Kalish and other artists simply rely on the quality of their songs and the willingness of lovers of strong country music to spread the word from ear to ear.  We'll do that here at Routes & Branches. 

- Harmed Brothers, "Skyline Over"  Across the Waves  (Fluff & Gravy, Jun 5)  D
- Nikki & the Phantom Callers, "Blue Moonlight" Everybody's Going To Hell  (Speake, 20)
^ Nathan Kalish, "Kalimotxo" Songs For Nobody  (Winter Wildfires, 20)  D
- Pokey LaFarge, "Ain't Comin' Home" Rock Bottom Rhapsody  (New West, 20)
- Robbie Fulks, "Jeannie's Afraid of the Dark" 13 Hillbilly Giants  (Bloodshot, 01)
- Clem Snide, "Forever Just Beyond" Forever Just Beyond  (Ramseur, 20)
- Devil Doll, "Purse Whiskey" Lover & a Fighter  (Devil Doll, May 1)  D
- Charley Crockett, "All I Can See Is a Train" Field Recordings Vol 1  (Son of Davy, 20)  D
- Hiss Golden Messenger, "Blue Country Mystic (Live)" Forward Children  (Merge, 20)
- Other Lives, "We Wait" For Their Love  (ATO, Apr 24)
- James Elkington, "Rendlesham Way" Ever-Roving Eye  (Paradise of Bachelors, 20)
- Laura Marling, "Held Down" Song For Our Daughter  (Partisan, 20)  D
- Logan Ledger, "Electric Fantasy" Logan Ledger  (Rounder, 20)
- Jack White, "I Guess I Should Go To Sleep" Blunderbuss  (Third Man, 12)
- Caleb Caudle, "Call It a Day" Better Hurry Up  (Soundly, 20)
- Dalton Domino, "We're All Gonna Die" Feverdreamer  (Domino, 20)  D
- Ruthie Collins, "Dang Dallas" Cold Comfort  (Sidewalk, 20)
- Joel Plaskett, "On a Dime" Park Avenue Sobriety Test  (Pheromone, 15)
- Mapache, "Cactus Flower" From Liberty Street  (Yep Roc, 20)
- Anthony da Costa, "Not Every Lover" Feet On the Dashboard  (AntiFragile, 20)
- Will Sexton, "Oh the Night (Night Owls Call)" Don't Walk the Darkness  (Big Legal Mess, 20)
- Kristina Murray, "Righteous Man" Righteous Man EP  (Loud Magnolia, 20)  D
- Lowest Pair, "Shot Down the Sky" Perfect Plan  (Delicata, Apr 24)
- Greyhounds, "Tune In" Primates  (Nine Mile, Jul 10)  D
- Jack Grelle, "Out Where the Buses Don't Run" If Not Forever  (Grelle, Apr 17)
- Deadstring Brothers, "Sacred Heart" Starving Winter Report  (Bloodshot, 06)
- Samantha Crain, "Holding To the Edge of Night" A Small Death  (Ramseur, Jul 17)
- Hellbound Glory, "Dial 911" Pure Scum  (Black Country Rock, Jun 5)
- Van Darien, "American Steel" Levee  (Van Darien, 20)  D
- John Prine, "Please Don't Bury Me" Sweet Revenge  (Atlantic, 73)


My lateness in sharing this week's Episode is by no means a record, though it's still impressive.  Given the bonus days, a good amount of new stuff has been added to our patented release calendar, A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster.  With little warning, indie folk darling Laura Marling dropped Song For Our Daughter this week.  Fans will also want to make a note about Phoebe Bridgers' sophomore solo album, Punisher, which is slotted for June 19 courtesy of Dead Oceans.  Tentatively making room for the always interesting Roadside Graves, whose That's Why We're Running Away is planned for May 22 (Don Giovanni).  The Austin blues-rock duo The Greyhounds will premier Primates on July 10, via Nine Mile.  We're also trying to keep up with delays and alterations of release dates, including Nicole Atkins' Italian Ice, which will now land on May 29.  Here, it's your weekly ROUTES-cast:

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