ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
May 31, 2020
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
For my money, May has been the sweetest month of this year with regard to new releases. In another month we'll be expressing ourselves about our favorite albums of the first half of the year, and I fully expect these will all land on that list without a struggle. Heck, there's a good chance that my numbers six, seven and eight would be in consideration as well ...
WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT MAY?!
- American Aquarium, Lamentations (New West, May 1)
- Damien Jurado, What's New Tomboy (Mama Bird, May 1)
- Andrew Bryant, Sentimental Noises (Magnolia State, May 1)
- Jason Isbell & 400 Unit, Reunions (Southeastern, May 15)
- Reckless Kelly, American Girl / American Jackpot (No Big Deal, May 22)
We might not hear anything more heart-stirring this year than Jaime Wyatt's raw and tattered piano ballad that opens her full-length debut, Neon Cross. There are songs on the superb collection with more remarkable lyrics, or arrangements that are more deserving of attention, but there's nothing I've returned to more this week than "Sweet Mess".
We'll hit rewind for a moment, to remind folks of the LA songwriter's 2017 seven-cut EP, Felony Blues, an opening volley that earned Wyatt a number of album of the year considerations. Her origin story of prison, drugs and hard times garnered her the reputation of an outlaw country artist. To that point, Wyatt closed out her record with a spot-on run through Merle Haggard's "Misery and Gin".
But Neon Cross is a different beast. Hard times haven't necessarily passed. Jaime Wyatt reportedly relapsed since the release of that first EP. She sings on "By Your Side" about missing the funerals of her father and another good friend while she was battling her demons. And her subsequent scrambling to bring it all under control included a decision to announce to family, friends and fans that she is gay.
This stuff is brought up by just about every review of Wyatt's new collection, but it's the artist's hard-won skill as a songwriter that will see Neon Cross onto countless year-end favorites lists (like our own). Credit in part producer Shooter Jennings, who has so compellingly captured her wild side, even as he polishes the settings of these songs in order to present her as a contemporary, relevant artist. In the midst of it all is Wyatt's uncommonly expressive voice, which Jennings caught in early takes that emphasize the rawness and the hurt that makes her one of the most fascinating vocalists since Lucinda Williams.
I tried not to have any filter with these songs, she comments in her official bio, because I'll be honest - it feels like I'm gonna die if I don't tell people how I feel and who I am. That said, much of the appeal of Neon Cross lies in the looseness and an abandon that shine through on some of the album's more upbeat tracks. Her official coming out song, "Rattlesnake Girl" dances by on Neal Casal's air horn guitar, one of the last recordings prior to his passing. I see my sweet friends out on the weekends, they all look happy and gay / They keep their secrets all covered in sequins, people have too much to say, she sings. I am a rattlesnake girl.
The title track is a confident kiss off set to a galloping rhythm, lyrics sticky with sarcasm: So sad / Goddamn / I'm wearing some pitiful perfume ... Oh poor me! "L I V I N" is a pedal steel stamped throwback that brings to mind the groundbreaking work of Loretta Lynn, another artist who paved the way for the women of country music to express themselves, no matter the sentiment. While Jaime Wyatt's new songs sound as contemporary as Kacey Musgraves or Ashley McBryde, they're also steeped in the spirit of what's come before. Nowhere is that more evident than on "Just a Woman", a slyly delivered piece that finds her sharing a mic with Shooter's mom, Jessi Colter. There's not a man in this world I would rather be / Though I have dreams of taking flight on feathered wings, the tune deserves Americana Music Association consideration for Song of the Year.
Wyatt's duet with Shooter, "Hurts So Bad" is another satisfying honky tonk number, with Casal and the band setting down a great track. As with her EP, Neon Cross closes with a cover, though a more unexpected choice than her first. Originally performed by metal/blues phenom Dax Riggs, "Demon Tied To a Chair In My Brain" is a swampy blues featuring some fiery fiddle by Jennings collaborator Aubrey Richmond.
Jaime Wyatt, Shooter Jennings and co. have birthed a fantastic collection that manages to build on the artist we met and appreciated on Felony Blues. Most impressively, they accomplish this by stripping away any artifice or pretention and giving listeners full access to her voice and vision. As she commented in a Fader interview, It's imperfect and beautiful and spontaneous. Like Margo Price, Wyatt can deliver attitude. Like Sarah Shook, Neon Cross can be raw and direct. And like a young Lucinda Williams, her potential is sky high.
- Pops Staples, "Somebody Was Waiting" Don't Lose This (Anti, 15)
- Nicole Atkins, "Am Gold" Italian Ice (Single Lock, 20)
- Greyhounds, "Stay Here Tonight" Primates (Nine Mile, Jul 10)
- Larkin Poe, "Back Down South (feat. Tyler Bryant)" Self Made Man (Tricki-Woo, Jun 12)
- Teddy Thompson, "Record Player" Heartbreaker Please (Chalky Sounds, 20)
- Thad Cockrell, "Higher (feat. Brittany Howard)" If In Case You Feel the Same (ATO, Jun 26) D
- Pete Bernhard, "Can't Find You" Harmony Ascension Division (Kahn, 20)
- Steve Earle, "Black Lung" Ghosts of West Virginia (New West, 20)
- Lambchop, "I Would Have Waited Here All Day" Damaged (Merge, 06)
- Joshua Ray Walker, "Boat Show Girl" Glad You Made It (State Fair, Jul 10)
- Logan Ledger, "River of Fools" single (Rounder, 20) D
^ Jaime Wyatt, "Sweet Mess" Neon Cross (New West, 20)
- Joe Henry, "Curt Flood" Fuse (Mammoth, 99)
- Andrew Bryant, "Slow and Hard" Sentimental Noises (Magnolia State, 20)
- Mike & the Moonpies, "Smooth Shot of Whiskey" Touch of You: Lost Songs of Gary Stewart (Prairie Rose, 20) D
- Courtney Marie Andrews, "It Must Be Someone Else's Fault" Old Flowers (Fat Possum, Jul 24)
- Tessy Lou Williams, "Why Do I Still Want You" Tessy Lou Williams (TLW, 20)
- Vic Chesnutt, "Square Room" Salesman & Bernadette (Ghetto Bells, 98)
- Tommy Alexander, "Troubled Mind" Waves (Alexander, Jun 5) D
- Charley Crockett, "Welcome to Hard Times" Welcome to Hard Times (Son of Davy, Jul 31) D
- Kyle Nix, "Graves" Lightning On the Mountain and Other Short Stories (Bossier City, Jun 26)
- Anna Tivel, "The Question (acoustic)" The Question: Live and Alone (Fluff & Gravy, 20)
- Reckless Kelly, "Goodbye Colorado" American Girl / American Jackpot (No Big Deal, 20)
- Ray Wylie Hubbard, "Fast Left Hand (feat. Cadillac Three)" Co-Starring (Big Machine, Jul 10)
- Will Stewart, "Night God" Way Gone EP (Cornelius Chapel, 20)
- Will Johnson, "(Made Us Feel Like) Kings" Swan City Vampires (Undertow, 15)
- Gretchen Peters, "San Francisco Mabel Joy" Night You Wrote That Song (Scarlet Letter, 20)
- Moviola, "Hollow Boon" Scrape & Cuss (No Heroics, 20)
- Zach Aaron, "Aztec Cafe" Fill Dirt Wanted (Aaron, 20)
- Whitney, "Take Me Home Country Roads (feat. Waxahatchee)" single (Secretly Canadian, 20) D
A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster is the best way I know to keep tabs on which artist is doing what, when. We'll add to it as we come across info about new releases during our regular jaunts around the dark web. Seems Mike & the Moonpies have done away with all that fancy business of announcing a release and releasing singles. For the second record in a row, they pretty much just dropped Touch of You: Lost Songs of Gary Stewart, a celebration of the under-celebrated country writer that draws from unreleased work. Kenyan born JS Ondara has spent the quarantine time recording some bare-bones tracks which has he just released as Folk n' Roll Vol 1: Tales of Isolation on Verve. He also abbreviated his stage name by dropping the JS. Ray Lamontagne seems to be upping the tempo and the spirit of his new songs, setting June 26 as the release date for MONOVISION on RCA. One of my most eagerly anticipated debuts, SG Goodman has scooted back her Old Time Feeling to July 17 (Verve). And the legendary telecaster wiz Bill Kirchen has announced a July 24 debut of The Proper Years, a 2-CD set featuring songs from his later catalog. You've made it to your weekly ROUTES-cast:
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