HARMED BROTHERS - ACROSS the WAVES

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

May 23, 2020

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

The music of the Harmed Brothers falls in what I regard as the sweet spot between pop and roots music, the place that more mainstream sorts think of as the genre that time forgot, if they think of it at all.  While the hybrid has lined few artists' pockets, here at R&B HQ we've spent years celebrating a rich tradition of acts that follow a roots-pop muse, from Jayhawks and earlier Wilco to Son Volt, Sons of Bill or Hollis Brown.

Formed in Oregon by songwriters Ray Vietti and Alex Salcido, Harmed Brothers' 2017 self-titled album was far better than it needed to be, raising my hopes and my expectations for their follow-up.  In the years since, the outfit decamped to Ludlow, KY, a suburb of Cincinnati, though Portland's reliable Fluff & Gravy remains their label home for Across the Waves (June 5).

You bought yourself a little Jesus fish / You put it on your car and you made a wish, begins the record's rousing opener, "Skyline Over".  Written and delivered by Alex Salcido, it's a propulsive pop track whose bounce and buzz belie a cloudier core.  It's Harmed Brothers' calling card throughout their new collection, juxtaposing sometimes harsh realities with a hope, expressed in primary musical colors.  The song's chorus soars: If Friday comes and you're still around / Would you stretch 'til you're ten feet tall / If you could would you spread your wings / At least as far as the county sprawls.  "Skyline Over" has staying power that will assure it's considered among my favorite songs for this bleak year.

Lead guitarist Ben Knight launches a Ken Bethea-worthy guitar line to start Ray Vietti's "Picture Show", casting light on the idea of a movie of our life.  Playing spectator to the lows and fleeting highs of our respective story as it flashes across the waves, most of us would be tempted to fast-forward through the awkward parts, but Vietti advises: Hold on tight / I won't let go.

With emphasis on guitar, and some added piano flourishes, the arrangements of Across the Waves are simple but direct.  Co-produced with Colorado's Inaiah Lujan, the collection forgoes the polish of typical pop for a more organic, human approach that makes the Harmed Brothers' songs that much more accessible and familiar.  "All the Same" watches the world through the grimy window of a touring van, perpetually in search of a bigger picture: Terminal dreamer / Caught up in the chase / Heart still beating / And lost in vain. The aging narrator of "Funnies" mines the detritus of everyday life for scraps of familiarity and meaning, bemoaning that The earth is running out of truth.

Harmed Brothers let their roots show more readily on cuts like "River Town", featuring a touch of pedal steel.  But typically guitars are more barbed and piano or organ are more likely to play the supporting role, even to the point where "In a Staring Contest" comes across like a soulful Nathaniel Rateliff track.  One of the CD's most rewarding pieces, "Ride It Out" cruises on a descending guitar line as Salcido reflects on the specter of anxiety:  Ride it out / Take a deep breath / Let it cover you up like death / Don't call the family just yet.

As a longtime touring act, the members of Harmed Brothers are gaining some perspective as they begin to sink roots into the soil of their new Kentucky home.  Ray Vietti and Alex Salcido haven't changed their minds about life's disappointments (Time's gonna take it all away from us / With every step our bodies rust), but just maybe they're more able to recognize the pinpoints of meaning that make the dark stuff more navigable.  Like a father so proud / Wielding an old camcorder in the yard / I'm gonna bottle up the days / And get drunk off of them when the nights get hard.  And the fact that you can sing along to their effervescent roots music makes it all go down easier.

^ Harmed Brothers, "Picture Show" Across the Waves  (Fluff & Gravy, Jun 5)
- Jenny O, "Even If I Tried" New Truth  (Mama Bird, Jun 19)
- Roadside Graves, "I Wasted My Life" That's Why We're Running Away  (Don Giovanni, 20)
- David Ramirez, "My Love Is a Hurricane" My Love Is a Hurricane  (Sweetworld, Jul 17)
- Alabama Shakes, "I Ain't the Same" Boys & Girls  (ATO, 12)
- Texas Gentlemen, "Bare Maximum" Floor It!!!  (New West, Jul 17)
- Pert Near Sandstone, "Kings & Clowns" Rising Tide  (PNS, Jun 12)
- Kyle Nix, "Blue Eyes" Lightning On the Mountain and Other Short Stories  (Bossier, Jun 26)
- Israel Nash, "Lucky Ones (live)" Across the Water  (Desert Folklore, 20)  D
- Steve Earle, "If I Could See Your Face Again (feat. Eleanor Whitmore)" Ghosts of West Virginia  (New West, 20)
- Cody Jinks, "Watch the World Die" single  (Late August, 20)  D
- Tessy Lou Williams, "Somebody's Drinking About You" Tessy Lou Williams  (TLW, 20)
- Reckless Kelly, "Company of Kings" American Girl / American Jackpot  (No Big Deal, 20)
- Hellbound Glory, "Ragged But Alright" Pure Scum  (Black Country Rock, Jun 5)
- Neko Case, "Thrice All American" Furnace Room Lullaby  (Mint, 00)
- X, "Angel On the Road" Alphabetland  (Fat Possum, 20)
- American Aquarium, "Starts With You" Lamentations  (New West, 20)
- Yawpers, "Walter" American Man  (Bloodshot, 15)
- Todd Snider, "I Wish We Had Our Time Again" On the Road: Tribute to John Hartford  (LoHi, Jun 26)  D
- Kathleen Edwards, "Options Open" Total Freedom  (Dualtone, Aug 14)  D
- Will Hoge, "Even the River Runs Out of This Town" Tiny Little Movies  (EDLO, Jun 26)
- Jason Isbell, "St Peter's Autograph" Reunions  (Southeastern, 20)
- Jason Molina, "Shadow Answers the Wall" Eight Gates  (Secretly Canadian, Aug 7)  D
- Ben de la Cour, "Shadow Land" Shadow Land  (Flour Sack Cape, 20)
- Woods, "Before They Pass By" Strange to Explain  (Woodsist, 20)
- Alela Diane, "Long Way Down" Wild Divine  (Rough Trade, 11)
- Country Westerns, "I'm Not Ready" Country Westerns  (Fat Possum, Jun 26)
- Jaime Wyatt, "Goodbye Queen" Neon Cross  (New West, May 29)
- Avett Brothers, "Dancing Daze" Four Thieves Gone  (Ramseur, 06)
- SG Goodman, "Old Time Feeling" Old Time Feeling  (Verve, May 29)

Hardly a week goes by when we don't add at least one or two game-changing new releases to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster.  David Ramirez has released a couple ambitious singles of late.  Now they're connected with a full-length project called My Love Is a Hurricane, due in stores July 17th on Sweetworld Records.  Jesse Dayton's Gulf Coast Sessions EP (Blue Elan, July 24) is an 8-track session inspired by the culturally rich area between Beaumont, TX and New Orleans.  Longtime R&B watchers recognize Jason Molina as one of the deeper roots of the Routes & Branches family tree.  Seven years after his passing, Secretly Canadian has announced an August 7 street date for Eight Gates, a full-length collection of unreleased songs set to tape during his sojourn in London.  We've heard an advance of this, and can vouch that it's a full-realized project, as opposed to a hastily-assembled hodgepodge of leftover tracks.  Finally, eight years after her retreat from the music business to open her own coffee house, Kathleen Edwards returns with Total Freedom, due August 14 on Dualtone.  No better way to keep track of all this novelty than to press GO on this week's Spotify ROUTES-cast:

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