ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
June 7, 2020
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
It's always a good idea to have things to look forward to. Whether it's the weekend, a vacation or lunch, it can make a challenging day less difficult. For us here at R&B HQ, new music serves that purpose in Times Like These. As we stumble ever nearer the halfway point of 2020: Year of the Plague, here are the five albums that are giving us a reason to live:
- Country Westerns, Country Westerns (Fat Possum, Jun 26)
- Joshua Ray Walker, Glad You Made It (State Fair, Jul 10)
- SG Goodman, Old Time Feeling (Verve, Jul 17)
- Courtney Marie Andrews, Old Flowers (Fat Possum, Jul 24)
- Jerry Joseph, Beautiful Madness (Decor, Aug 21)
Leroy Virgil can be about as good a country singer and songwriter as you're likely to find. He's also capable of clearing out a room with his unfiltered take on the world as seen from his compound looking down upon Reno, Nevada. For every "Empty Bottles" (one of 2017's best tracks, from Virgil's Pinball record), another song will drop in a lyric like God bless the NRA / ... Sometimes we all just gotta pull and pray, or We can steal some Keystone beer from an A-rab liquor store. But several albums and a couple lineups into his career, it's just part of his package for Virgil to speak his mind and sabotage his possible path to a more lucrative career. That edge and unpredictability, paired with an uncanny ear for country melody; it's why we listen to Hellbound Glory.
Hellbound Glory's first three collections helped define the insurgent country movement, even as they found Virgil establishing his mercurial reputation. Scumbag Country (08), Old High and New Lows (10) and Damaged Goods (11) boasted some remarkable country songs ... But subsequent releases under a couple different monikers have proven as inconsistent as Virgil's notoriously evasive interviews. While those exceptional songs shone through, they were typically accompanied by covers, re-recordings or throwaway novelties that kept more recent Hellbound Glory projects from garnering more than cursory popular attention or review acclaim.
Here's where we mention Shooter Jennings, as we've done for two other reviews in the past month. A perfect compliment to Leroy Virgil's talents and sharp edges, Jennings served as producer for 2017's Pinball album, and returns to the helm for Hellbound Glory's new Pure Scum. While Jennings hasn't necessarily changed the act's sound or spirit, he's at least helped focus Virgil's talents to the point where he's writing and recording, sharing quality new music on a consistent basis. What results is a consistently accomplished concept album of sorts, a series of snapshots of life among the scumbag culture of Virgil's beloved Renowhere.
It's Jennings' road band that once again plays the part of Hellbound Glory for these new songs, laying down a workmanlike soundtrack to Virgil's scenarios. Throughout most of the new collection, it's a remarkably traditional expression of country music, where the pedal steel bends just right and the fiddle weeps in all the appropriate places. "Renowhere" sets the stage, suggesting a rowdy, neon-lit paradise of unanswered prayers, where the bars don't close / And the cops don't care. The upbeat, honky-tonk vibe is infectious, even if Virgil is always quick to remind us we should know better. Another goodtime track, "Wild Orchid" names names in a cautionary tale with pounding barroom piano and a reckless chicken-scratch guitar solo.
This is Leroy Virgil's milieu. These are his people. But we shouldn't close the book there, because as much as Hellbound Glory is fueled by sordid tales of the "Hank Williams Lifestyle" (For every dollar I make / Dear lord, the road takes two), we can't ignore the fact that Virgil is a savant for a strong country melody. And there are artists who draw twelve times his crowd who don't come near his classic vocal delivery. "Damned Angel" plays like a lost early Chris Isaak cut, a yearning romantic ballad with a dose of earnest strings. The midtempo "Someone To Use" sets dead-end love to as catchy a melody as you're bound to hear on mainstream radio. Even "Dial 911", featuring a narrator who is apparently succumbing to stab wounds at the hand of a jilted lover, is delivered in a heart rending baritone.
With some discipline and some well-connected help, you might think that Virgil could turn his attention to writing for the Nashville elite. But that's not his bag. As he proclaims on the semi-autobiographical "Neon Leon": Friday night will find me / In some honky-tonk bar / On some dim lit stage / I was born to be a star. For now, it's enough that he and the suddenly in-demand Mr Jennings have created the most country album in Hellbound Glory's catalog. And even as the years have assured that Pure Scum doesn't necessarily deliver the shock of those early recordings, they haven't sold their ragged soul for stardom. In a song that could serve as Leroy Virgil's signature, "Ragged But Alright", he sings: If I win or lose / I do what I choose / It's a scumbag's life for me.
^ Hellbound Glory, "Hank Williams Lifestyle" Pure Scum (Black Rock Country, 20)
- Phil Lee, "Blueprint For Disaster" Mighty King of Love (Shanachie, 05)
- Jaime Wyatt, "Just a Woman (feat. Jessi Colter)" Neon Cross (New West, 20)
- Zephaniah OHora, "All American Singer" Listening To the Music (Last Roundup, Aug 14) D
- Dougie Poole, "Who's Who of Who Cares" Freelancer's Blues (Wharf Cat, Jun 12)
- Reckless Kelly, "All Over Again (Break Up Blues)" American Girl / American Jackpot (No Big Deal, 20)
- Harmed Brothers, "In a Staring Contest" Across the Waves (Fluff & Gravy, 20)
- Roadside Graves, "The Cutter" That's Why We're Running Away (Don Giovani, 20)
- Lillie Mae, "These Daze" Forever and Then Some (Third Man, 17)
- John Baumann, "Sunday Morning Going Up" Country Shade (Next Waltz, 20)
- Jayhawks, "Dogtown Days" Xoxo (Sham, Jul 10)
- Nick Lowe, "Here Comes That Feeling" Lay It On Me EP (Yep Roc, 20)
- Grant-Lee Phillips, "Straight To the Ground" Lightning Show Us Your Stuff (Yep Roc, Sep 4) D
- Backyard Tire Fire, "Good To Be" Good To Be (Kelsey St, 09)
- Nicole Atkins, "Never Going Home Again" Italian Ice (Single Lock, 20)
- Tommy Alexander, "Whatever You Say" Waves (Alexander, Jun 12)
- Dead Tongues, "Deja Vu" Transmigration Blues (Psychic Hotline, Jun 26)
- Joan Shelly, "Bed In the River" single (Absolute Anthem, 20) D
- John Craigie, "Part Wolf" Asterisk the Universe (Zabriskie Pt, Jun 12)
- Samantha Crain, "Pastime" A Small Death (Ramseur, Jul 17)
- Jerry Joseph, "Full Body Echo" Beautiful Madness (Decor, Aug 21)
- Lucero, "Halfway Wrong" 1372 Overton Park (Universal, 09)
- Esther Rose, "Blue on Blue" My Favorite Mistakes EP (Father/Daughter, 20) D
- Ben de la Cour, "Anderson's Small Ritual" Shadow Land (Flour Sack Cape, 20)
- Mike & the Moonpies, "That's Life" Touch of You: Lost Songs of Gary Stewart (Prairie Rose, 20)
- Felice Brothers, "Days Of the Years" Undress (Yep Roc, 19)
- Teddy Thompson, "Why Wait" Heartbreaker Please (Chalky Sounds, 20)
- Zach Aaron, "Hold the Line" Fill Dirt Wanted (Aaron, 20)
- Jason Isbell & 400 Unit, "Letting You Go" Reunions (Southeastern, 20)
- Valerie June, "You Can't Be Told" Pushin' Against a Stone (Concord, 13)
A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster grows ever richer by the week, bursting with new music to soundtrack our sorry state. A protege of the late Jim Dickinson, the Reverend Greg Spradlin & His Band of Imperials will be taking their bow with Hi-Watter, boasting a line-up that includes Elvis Costello's Imposters drummer Pete Thomas and David Hidalgo from Los Lobos (Out of the Past, July 17). Following up his stellar debut, 2017's This Highway, Zephaniah OHora returns with Listening To the Music via Last Roundup on August 28. The last man signed to Oh Boy prior to John Prine's passing, Arlo McKinley is set to share the long-awaited Die Midwestern come August 14. The prolific Grant-Lee Phillips has chosen September 4 as the street date for Lightning Show Us Your Stuff, via Yep Roc. And the great Bob Mould returns with Blue Hearts as we head into the fall (Merge, September 25). Time for your weekly ROUTES-cast:
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