ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
May 10, 2020
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Lately I've been walking in the darkness / Talking to myself / Smoking cigarettes and crying / Thinking about all the shit I've done wrong / And I thought about suicide / I thought about an accident / I thought about god and the devil / And none of that makes sense to me / So I just buy another 40 and keep crying

It's from "Big Hawk", which also happens to be one of the more rhythmically upbeat tracks on Sentimental Noises, the new release from Oxford, Mississippi's Andrew Bryant.  The writer's brutal candor and dark introspection are complimented by an innate instinct for melodicism on the sessions, the one-time Water Liar's third solo project since his group's last album. Of Water Liars, it was said that his bandmate Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster wrote the songs, and that Andrew Bryant made them interesting.

"Big Hawk" takes flight with that unsparing lyric, behind a steady drum beat and a guitar scratch.  As the song unspools, the narrator departs into a reverie, imagining himself taking up with a little bird, perching in high places and killing her breakfast.  Like many of Bryant's new works, it's not an especially unhappy one, though it certainly portrays the artist as a troubled soul in a dark night.  The Sentimental of the title hints a romantic streak that runs through his work:  You know I'm always sentimental / In the mornings when I'm thinking about you, he sings.

Bryant's 2017 release, Ain't It Like the Cosmos, struck a heavier blow musically, with drums pounding and guitars tearing deeper into the flesh of his songs.  Those tunes dwelt more commonly on his blue collar role in family and in community.  The guitars on Sentimental Noises can still buzz and tear, but the general spirit is one of introspection, puzzling over relationships as often as he simply loses his way in the maze of his own thoughts.  He addresses the cardinal in my heart that never flies on "Blue In My Baby's Eyes", accompanied by a beautifully simple guitar line and harmonica.  Even as he rhapsodizes about another, his lyrics drift to less mundane matters: I gaze at the antlers above my door / From some deer my father shot when he was bored / And I wanted to feel his hand rest on my side / Sing the praises of the shepherd's guiding light.

Like the music of his bandmate's recent collaborator Will Johnson, Andrew Bryant's clouded expression can be darkly, covertly thrilling.  You'll find more melodic gestures on songs like "Something Else", or on the celestial closer "Wall Around My Heart".  But even as the former expresses such a concrete yearning in its soaring chorus, a desire for something that I wanted for myself, other tunes tangle into an anxiety of guitar squall.  Sometimes you see the life you never knew you didn't have / Sometimes you never see the good for only seeing the bad.

Throughout my life as a reader and a listener, I've gravitated towards authors and artists with a gift for expression that allows them to dive into the chiaroscuro and resurface with the poetry to describe what they've seen.  Even more cherished are artists like Andrew Bryant who are able to carry that shadow on their shoulders without losing track of the light and the meaning that sometimes flashes through our lives.   It's that something else of which he sings, the romance and the beauty possible in everyday things, and in the fleeting connection between people.  I could hear the birds singing / Hear the birds singing on the line / Singing we're gonna be alright / We're gonna be alright.  Cue the guitars.


- Tim Barry, "Tacoma" Manchester  (Chunksaah, 11)
- X, "Water and Wine" Alphabetland  (Fat Possum, 20)
- Dougie Poole, "Los Angeles" Freelancer's Blues  (Wharf Cat, Jun 12)  D
- Edith Frost, "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone" Nothing Comes Around EP  (Drag City, 20)  D
- Kyle Nix, "Lightning On the Mountain" Lightning On the Mountain and Other Short Stories  (Bossier City, Jun 26)  D
- Shakey Graves, "Look Alive" Look Alive EP  (Shakey Graves, 20)  D
- Moviola, "Cobalt Blue" Scrape and Cuss  (No Heroics, 20)  D
- Jenny O, "What About That Day" New Truth  (Mama Bird, Jun 19)
- Iron & Wine, "Freedom Hangs Like Heaven" Woman King EP  (Sub Pop, 05)
- Ray Wylie Hubbard, "Outlaw Blood (feat. Ashley McBryde)" Co-Starring  (Big Machine, Jul 10)
- Sylvia Rose Novak, "Dallas" Bad Luck  (Novak, 20)
- Will Stewart, "Southern Raphael" Way Gone EP  (Cornelius Chapel, 20)  D
- Arlo McKinely, "Ghost of My Best Friend" single  (McKinley, 20)  D
- Bright Eyes, "Mushaboom (live)" Motion Sickness  (Team Love, 06)
- Lucinda Williams, "Wakin' Up" Good Souls Better Angels  (Hwy 20, 20)
- Steve Earle, "Union God & Country" Ghosts of West Virginia  (New West, May 22)
- American Aquarium, "Before the Dogwood Blooms" Lamentations  (New West, 20)
- Whitey Morgan, "Memories Cost a Lot" Whitey Morgan & the 78s  (Bloodshot, 10)
- Joshua Ray Walker, "True Love" Glad You Made It  (State Fair, Jul 10)  D
- Hellbound Glory, "Renowhere" Pure Scum  (Black Country Rock, Jun 5)
- Lowest Pair, "Shot Down the Sky" Perfect Plan  (Delicata, 20)
- Detroit Cobras, "Heartbeat" Rave On Buddy Holly  (Concord, 11)
- Blitzen Trapper, "Magical Thinking" Holy Smokes Future Jokes  (Yep Roc, Sep 11)  D
- Damien Jurado, "Francine" What's New Tomboy  (Mama Bird, 20)
^ Andrew Bryant, "Blue In My Baby's Eyes" Sentimental Noises  (Magnolia State, 20)
- Califone, "Better Angels" All My Friends Are Funeral Singers  (Dead Oceans, 09)
- Roadside Graves, "I Cried" That's Why We're Running Away  (Don Giovanni, May 22)
- Anna Tivel, "Homeless Child (acoustic)" The Question: Live and Alone  (Fluff & Gravy, May 29)  D
- Nick Lowe, "Don't Be Nice To Me" Lay It On Me EP  (Yep Roc, Jun 5)
- Angie McMahon, "If You Call (feat. Leif Vollebekk)"  single  (Dualtone, 20)  D


You might have noticed a ridiculous number of debuts on our playlist this Episode (entries marked with a "D").  It seems more and more the case that singles and EPs and even full albums just drop like ripe apples from the sky, like Will Stewart's new EP, Way Gone (Cornelius Chapel).  Of course, some artists continue to announce forthcoming releases as god intended; ones that we can add in an orderly fashion to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feedin' Your Monster.  This week, a lot of digital ink was spilt on Bob Dylan's first real Bob Dylan record in ages - Rough & Rowdy Ways (Columbia, June 19).  Fluff & Gravy promised they would release a solo acoustic run-thru of Anna Tivel's essential The Question on May 29.  While the rest of Turnpike Troubadours take time to pick up the pieces of their fallen band, fiddle player Kyle Nix has announced a solo CD: Lightning On the Mountain and Other Short Stories, due June 26 via Bossier City.  Joshua Ray Walker is poised for Big Things with the July 10 issue of Glad You Made It  (State Fair).  Charley Crockett continues his prolific streak, collaborating with Dan Auerbach and others on Welcome To Hard Times, slotted for July 31.  Finally, we've followed Blitzen Trapper since they were a baby band, so imagine how pleased we were to hear of an August 28 date for Holy Smokes Future Jokes, on their new Yep Roc label home.  A brand new ROUTES-cast awaits:

Earlier ROUTES-casts have been removed; subscribe to our Spotify page to keep up with all our new playlists!