ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
July 12, 2020
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Back when touring was a thing, I would sometimes look into supporting acts of artists I enjoyed, in hopes of catching a newer act on the rise. This is how I initially came across SG Goodman, scheduled as an opener on several dates for John Moreland. I immediately departed on an internet investigation, finding that she had released a record under the name Savage Radley, and that she was working with Jim James on her first solo session, Old Time Feeling, set for release this Friday on the Verve Forecast label. Goodman had met the My Morning Jacket frontman as contributors to the Pine Mountain Sessions, a largely overlooked 2-LP set of music and poetry from Kentucky artists and writers (you'll want to track this down).
Of course, I don't know that there has been more of a hotbed of our kind of music over the past couple years than Kentucky. In addition to James, think Joan Shelley, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Tyler Childers. But just like roots music in general, each of these artists exported a different sound and represented a different take on their Southern homeland. Some would embrace the mythology, while others would rail against it. Artists would alternately sink their heels into the green green grass of home, or would struggle to escape its pull.
As the country was beset by the plague, SG Goodman was mulling over the idea of relocating from Murray, Kentucky to New York City. As a gay woman born and raised in the South, she is both an insider and an outsider to the culture, a perspective that she mines throughout Old Time Feeling. She sings on the beat-driven title cut: the Southern state is a condition it's true / i've got a little proposition for you / stick around and work your way through / be the change that you hope to find. The record's sonic outlier, it enters like a freight train with guitars blazing and Goodman's insistent delivery bringing to mind the early punk-inspired alt.country like Maria McKee and Lone Justice. It's what the artist calls a new wave of indie Southern rock. With its blunt guitar and bluesy undertones, "When You Hear the Way I Talk" introduces a more atmospheric side to SG Goodman's sound, including some prime guitar squall. The songs aptly pinpoint her relationship with her Southern home, recognizing her own rootedness even as she bemoans the rotten elements at its core: a tale as old as time / to turn the poor against the poor.
The sound of Old Time Feeling is a fascinating meeting of tradition and vision, though Goodman points to Link Wray's timeless 1971 self-titled record as inspiration. You might also be able to draw a line through Nashville and a couple hundred miles to the Southwest, where Bobbie Gentry conjured her 1968 Delta Sweete. You'll wade through that hazy, humid spirit on "If It Ain't Me Babe", a tune that also name-drops Neil Young's Harvest. But, like Mercury Rev's recent reimagining of Gentry's music, Goodman's sessions with Jim James add a layer of atmospherics and attitude that assure that Old Time Feeling isn't just another nod to days gone by. "Space and Time" reads like an early rock 'n blues, as delivered by Courtney Marie Andrews. In a beautiful cry, Goodman recognizes the role that even her detractors have played in making her who she is: the stranger i pass / my momma / brothers / friends and my father / they're god undercover.
SG Goodman is a powerfully emotive singer, one whose strength comes as much from brokenness and vulnerability as from her capacity to hit all the right notes. This is especially evident on the slower, simmering cuts like the stirring "Redbird Morning" or "Burn Down the City". The latter pulses along with lovely keening backing vocals and an electric undercurrent that brings to mind HC McEntire and Mount Moriah. The evocative "Tender Kind" features an appropriately fragile vocal on a piece that recalls a passed relationship: postcard with a cotton bloom / sent from the south and it made it to you / signed, your delta blue.
Old Time Feeling introduces us to a fully formed artist, her songs unmistakably steeped in the romanticism and mythology of the South, but speaking urgently and eloquently about our present situations. One can imagine SG Goodman taking bold strides in years to come, expanding roots music into new directions and, just as importantly, delivering messages that matter. It's the kind of rare discovery that keeps our kind of music relevant, and it fuels everything we do.
- Molly Tuttle, "Standing On the Moon" ... but i'd rather be with you (Compass, Aug 28)
- Ottoman Turks, "You're Only Pretty When You're Sad" Ottoman Turks (State Fair, 19)
- Joshua Ray Walker, "User" Glad You Made It (State Fair, 20)
- Margo Price, "Prisoner of the Highway" That's How Rumors Get Started (Loma Vista, 20)
- Texas Gentlemen, "East St" Floor It!!! (New West, Jul 17)
- Dougie Poole, "Freelancer's Blues" Freelancer's Blues (Wharf Cat, 20)
- Greyhounds, "Long Goodbye" Primates (Nine Mile, 20)
- Elizabeth Cook, "Bones" Aftermath (Agent Love, Sep 11)
- Bohannons, "Built a World" Unaka Rising (This is American Music, 12)
- Ray Wylie Hubbard, "Rock Gods (feat. Aaron Lee Tasjan)" Co-Starring (Big Machine, 20)
- Eilen Jewell, "Green River" single (Signature Sounds, 20) D
- Bill Callahan, "Another Song" Gold Record (Drag City, Sep 4)
- Elliott Brood, "Stay Out" Keeper (Six Shooter, Sep 18) D
- Jayhawks, "Homecoming" XOXO (Sham, 20)
- Jolie Holland, "Amen" Escondida (Anti, 04)
- Pollies, "Hold On My Heart" From the Guest Bedroom (Single Lock, 20) D
- Dead Tongues, "Nothingness and Everything" Transmigration Blues (Psychic Hotline, 20)
- Wilco, "Red-Eyed and Blue" Being There (Reprise, 96)
- Avett Brothers, "Victory" Third Gleam (Loma Vista, Aug 28) D
- Kathleen Edwards, "Hard On Everyone" Total Freedom (Dualtone, Aug 14)
- John Murry, "Intruder" John Murry is Dead EP (Hibernian Sweatshop, Sep 11) D
- Gasoline Lollipops, "All the Misery Money Can Buy" All the Misery Money Can Buy (Soundly, Sep 11) D
- Aubrie Sellers, "Wicked Game" World on Fire EP (Soundly, Aug 7) D
- Band of Heathens, "Black Cat" Stranger (BoH, Sep 25)
- Kasey Chambers & Jimmy Barnes, "Black Bess" Cannot Buy My Soul: Songs of Kev Carmody (EMI Australia, Aug 21) D
- Great Peacock, "Broken Hearted Fool" Making Ghosts (This is American Music, 15)
- Chuck Prophet, "Love Doesn't Come From the Barrel of a Gun" Land That Time Forgot (Yep Roc, Aug 21)
- Mary Chapin Carpenter, "Secret Keepers" Dirt and the Stars (Lambent Light, Aug 7)
- Grant-Lee Phillips, "Gather Up" Lightning Show Us Your Stuff (Yep Roc, Sep 4)
- Cat Power, "Still In Love" Myra Lee (Smells Like, 96)
Let's take a look at some of the stuff that's been added this week to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, our obsessively updated release guide. We caught wind of From the Guest Bedroom by the Pollies this week (Single Lock). It actually hit shelves in June, featuring some pared back rerecordings of earlier songs. We were also surprised this week with a covers collection from Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. All the Good Times includes cuts originally by Prine, Dylan, Cash and others. My Morning Jacket dropped The Waterfall II, a companion piece to 2015's The Waterfall. Looking into the future, we've added All the Misery Money Can Buy to our plans for September 11, courtesy of Colorado's Gasoline Lollipops. Finally, the Canadian trio Elliott BROOD have announced their first collection since 2017's Ghost Gardens. On Six Shooter Records, Keeper should be expected September 18. Your weekly ROUTES-cast:
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