ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
April 19, 2020
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Next in our apparent series of established artists who we're just discovering ...  Sarah Siskind recorded her debut record as a teen, and experienced relatively early success as a Nashville songwriter, landing her songs over the years with artists like Alison Krauss, Claire Lynch and Randy Travis.  Arguably her best known work as a solo artist, "Lovin's For Fools" was picked up by Justin Vernon as an occasional concert closer for Bon Iver.

Granted, a number of years have passed since Siskind's last solo release, years that found her placing several songs on the Nashville television series and even leaving Music City a few years ago to return with her family to her North Carolina home.  Siskind's new project, the evocative Modern Appalachia, addresses the concepts of God and place, music and connection.

Of immediate importance is the small band with which she birthed her new CD.  A fine musician in her own right, Siskind is joined by Daniel Kimbro on bass, Jeff Sipe behind the drums, and the electric guitar of Mike Seal, in addition to guest appearances by Justin Vernon himself, vocalists Rose Cousins, Julie Lee and Elizabeth Foster, and legendarily eclectic guitarist Bill Frisell.  This is a return engagement for Frisell, who actually played on her 2002 debut as well.  This small but mighty outfit raises Sarah Siskind and her Modern Appalachia to unexpected heights.

The other force of nature at play here is Siskind's voice, a low-slung instrument that can't help but bring to mind artists like Carly Simon and Christine McVie, or Ana Egge for more roots-oriented ears.  While lazy writers dole out Joni Mitchell comparisons far too often, I would argue that Sarah Siskind is truly one of the few contemporary artists where that connection is well earned.  Like mid-period Mitchell, she's unafraid to venture onto the black keys, or to let a song take its sweet time to unfurl.

Modern Appalachia opens, for instance, with a Night Ride Home-esque seven-minute "Me and Now".  Pure zen in arrangement and in message, the tune finds Siskind taking stock of the moment, puzzling why we're always more ready to give advice than to stare down our own challenges:  I could give them the answers / So I don't have to ask myself / Why I never really took those same things / Down from my shelf.  With Rose Cousins contributing shadowy backing vocals, electric guitars ring and strike, soar and dive.

Those guitars largely define the collection for me, taking some unexpected angles on songs like the seemingly throwback folky "In the Mountains".  Like most of Appalachia, the piece hearkens back to an indefinite, homespun time, twining threads from an earlier day and teasing them into more contemporary garments.  After suggesting a gorgeous gospel-folk portrait, the final minute follows the guitar as it flits and takes flight like a dove.  "Little Bit Troubled" sharpens Siskind's music, adding a blues and rock edge: Daddy's on the road / Mama's on the bottle / Baby's gonna be okay / Just a little bit troubled.  You'll encounter that same rock spirit in the chunky thick bass of "Punk Rock Girl".

I can't imagine an instrumentalist working today whose work is as immediately recognizable as Bill Frisell.  His deep down compatibility with Suskind is evident on what is essentially a duet between her voice and his guitar in "Porchlight".  One of the session's more contemporary sounds, the late-night jazz-tinged song portrays the hidden lives and unspoken longings of neighbors:  We could seek our refuge / In this tiny seaside town / This is where I'm living / This is where I've found my home / You could never guess what I do for fun.  Perhaps more disguised in his contribution is Justin Vernon, whose distinct delivery lies beneath another more modern cut, "Carolina".  It also raises some of Modern Appalachia's overarching themes:  Who you are isn't where you're from, sings Suskind.  But where you're from is always close / And when you go digging in that dirt / Get ready for what you fear the most.

The acrobatic guitars in "Carolina" compliment the striking lyrical ballet:  You said I looked like a child when I danced / I think I broke some rules that night.  It brings us back around to the name with which Sarah Siskind christened her ninth project:  Modern Appalachia.  In the title track. the singer evokes the spirit of those who walked the path before her.  She devotes a verse each to Dolly Parton, Mahalia Jackson, Mr Frisell and Northern Irish troubadour Paul Brady, before acknowledging their respective music began to sew the fabric of me.  Even in light of this cloud of saints, Siskind's new album isn't a historical document.  Much like Emmylou Harris' career-defining 1995 release, Wrecking Ball, Modern Appalachia is haunted, the sound of guitars echoing off the hallowed walls and sending chills up the hollows. The story that it ultimately tells is that of the singer, following Siskind as she turns her back on Nashville, a country pearl / Slowly slipping off the strand, returning to the Carolina hills of her childhood.  Modern Appalachia is powerfully, beautifully haunted.

- Mountain Goats, "January 31, 438" Songs For Pierre Chuvin  (Merge, 20)
- Pine Box Boys, "56 Ar" Arkansas Killing Time  (Knights of the Green Shield, 05)
^ Sarah Siskind, "Carolina" Modern Appalachia  (Soundly, 20)
- Paul Burch, "Love Came Back" Light Sensitive  (Plowboy, 20)
- Corb Lund, "Raining Horses" Agricultural Tragic  (New West, Jun 26)
- Jack Grelle, "Loss of Repetition" If Not Forever  (Grelle, 20)
- Ray Wylie Hubbard, "Bad Trick" Co-Starring  (Big Machine, Jul 10)  D
- Jamie Wyatt, "Hurt So Bad (feat. Shooter Jennings)" Neon Cross  (New West, May 29)
- White Buffalo, "No History" On the Widow's Walk  (Snakefarm, 20)
- Trampled by Turtles, "Walt Whitman" Stars & Satellites  (Banjodad, 12)
- Eileen Rose, "Stagger Home" Muscle Shoals  (Holy Wreckords, 20)  D
- Gretchen Peters, "Wish I Was" Night You Wrote That Song  (Scarlet Letter, May 15)
- Zach Aaron, "Southeast Texas Trinity River Bottom Blues" Fill Dirt Wanted  (Aaron, May 15)  D
- Uncle Lucius, "Pocket Full of Misery" And You Are Me  (Entertainment One, 12)
- Country Westerns, "Times To Tunnels" Country Westerns (Fat Possum, May 1)
- Brittany Howard, "You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks" single  (Spotify, 20)  D
- Teddy Thompson, "Brand New" Heartbreaker Please  (Chalky Sounds, Apr 24)
- Heavy Trash, "Double Line" Going Way Out With Heavy Trash  (Patricia Ann, 05)
- Israel Nash, "Canyonheart" Topaz EP  (Desert Folklore, 20)  D
- Shelby Lynne, "I Got You" Shelby Lynne  (Everso, 20)
- Nathan Kalish, "Don't Confuse Me" Songs For Nobody  (Winter Wildfires, 20)
- Wilco, "Shot In the Arm" Summerteeth  (Reprise, 99)
- American Aquarium, "Six Years Come September" Lamentations  (New West, May 1)
- Bedouine, "The Hum" single  (Spacebomb, 20)  D
- Courtney Marie Andrews, "Burlap String" Old Flowers  (Fat Possum, Jun 5)
- Joe Ely, "Garden of Manhattan" Love In the Midst of Mayhem  (Rack 'Em, 20)  D
- SG Goodman, "Red Bird Morning" Old Time Feeling  (Verve, May 29)
- Dalton Domino, "Best I Ever Had" Feverdreamer  (Domino, 20)
- Van Darien, "Cardboard Boxes" Levee  (Van Darien, 20)
- Band of Horses, "No One's Gonna Love You" Cease to Begin  (Sub Pop, 07)


What with all the unexpected free time on their hands these days, artists continue to add new projects to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster.  Not only that, but folks like Joe Ely just up and dropped a new full-length without any warning.  The aptly titled Love In the Midst of Mayhem was released on Ely's own Rack 'Em Records.  Square State artist John Statz is looking to May 1 as the street date for Early Riser. After hearing a few advance tracks, I'm looking forward to Bad Luck from Kentucky's Sylvia Rose Novak come May 8, and same could be said for Zach Aaron's Fill Dirt Wanted on May 15. I'm always game for a good Various Artist compilation, so keep an eye open for On the Road: a Tribute to John Hartford.  Featuring contributions from Todd Snider, Railroad Earth, Band of Heathens and more, the CD is slotted for a June 26 debut on LoHi Records.  And speaking of hi-profile, Ray Wylie Hubbard has signed to Big Machine Record for Co-Starring, which pairs the legendary Texas outlaw with folks like Aaron Lee Tasjan, Ashley McBryde, Elizabeth Cook and more.  Set a timer for July 10 on that one.  While you're waiting, here's your weekly ROUTES-cast:

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