LYDiA LOVELESS - DAUGHTER

ROUTES & BRANCHES  

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

September 27, 2020

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

I'll venture out on a limb and proclaim to anyone listening that, all things considered, 2020 has been a fine year for new records.  Even with the delays and the distractions, each month manages to satisfy with enough music that matters that I am often challenged to select just five favorites at we stumble from one month to the next.  This is especially true as I scamper to give each release a fair listen.  So, leaves beginning to crunch under our feet, we march boldly into Pumpkin Days.  In order of appearance, here are the handful of records that made the strongest impression over the past thirty days:

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT SEPTEMBER?!!  

- Waylon Payne, Blue Eyes the Harlot the Queer the Pusher & Me  (Carnival, Sep 11)

- Otis Gibbs, Hoosier National  (Wanamaker, Sep 18)

- Fleet Foxes, Shore  (Anti, Sep 22)

- Lydia Loveless, Daughter  (Honey You're Gonna Be Late, Sep 25)

- Blitzen Trapper, Holy Smokes Future Jokes  (Yep Roc, Sep 25)

Lydia Loveless can be pretty funny.  She recently shared a piece with No Depression in which she confessed to finding solace in formulaic late night movies on the Lifetime network.  She has a cat named Catterson Hood.  Since her 2011 widespread debut, Indestructible Machine, the tone and timbre of Loveless' music has changed, but her sharp wit and barbed attitude have proven constant.  

With the exception of a couple turns of phrase, Lydia Loveless' new Daughter collection isn't especially concerned about the funny.  Wed to her bassist as a very young woman, these new sessions are set to tape following the dissolution of her marriage.  It's also the first release since her messy separation from the Bloodshot label.  Not to mention a move from her longtime Ohio home to North Carolina, and this whole pandemic thing that has driven artists to find new means of expression and creativity.  

Loveless opens Daughter with an appropriate gesture:  Welcome to my bachelor pad / I stay here when things get bad.  While that first widely released album laid down a definite scorched earth alt.country, little of that spirit remains on "Dead Writer", a downcast number kissed by Jay Gasper's pedal steel.  Loveless will probably never shake the deep twang inherent in her appealing voice, an instrument that she wields with increasing swagger and beauty here.  The song sets a tone for the collection, portraying the singer as a tortured artist, prone to drink and depression:  Like Exley on the davenport / Or Carver fishing off the shore, I just / Know I can write a book.

The singer is adrift on these sessions, drowning in ennui on "Love is Not Enough", one of the CD's strongest tracks.  Things show no sign of looking up, she proclaims, her music more Neko Case or Jenny Lewis than Old 97s.  In addition to Gasper, Loveless is supported on Daughter by a small outfit featuring Todd May on guitar George Hondroulis on percussion and producer Tom Schick.  Guitars ring on "Say My Name", providing the soundtrack as the narrator ventures out alone (Feels like I'll meet every gin in this town), wondering what's left of her on the dying end of a relationship.  

The question of identity echoes throughout Lydia Loveless' new work.  After a keyboard intro, "Never" is driven by a solid drum and bass beat: I'm not a liberated woman / Just a country bumpkin dilettante.  Even from the midst of the cloud of self-doubt and depression, there are flashes of strength and sure signs of awareness that hint at a possible redemption.  The song closes with layered vocals intoning the mantra: I carry around this pain / I live with all the mistakes I've made.  The record's title cut is an especially striking statement, adding keyboards to a strummed electric guitar.  "Daughter" bemoans our culture's habit of defining a woman by her relationship, whether that be wife or sister or mother, slow to recognize her value or identity when she is on her own.  

Though much of her music incorporates elements of pop, Loveless refrains from easy hooks in her compositions, her vocal delivery carrying the melodic weight from song to song.  A restlessly strummed acoustic propels "Wringer":  You give the sweetest kisses dear / But you leave the stinger.  "September" is accompanied only by piano, with Laura Jane Grace adding perfectly complimentary backing vocals.  The closing number, "Don't Bother Mountain", eschews traditional instrumentation for heartbeat percussion and ambient synths.  On one of the collection's most impactful moments, Loveless reflects, I am on the verge of brilliance / Or on the verge of death.  

It's as appropriate a place to close Daughter as the opener, portraying Lydia Loveless on the verge.  From 2014's Something Else through 2016's Real, she's never made easy listening music, never fulfilled the obvious expectations of an artist with her kind of voice.  On Daughter, she chooses to allow herself to be vulnerable, even calling into question her own emotional wellness.  But rather than indulging in performative gestures, Loveless' first new collection in four years is raw and genuine, demonstrating an anger and an edge, a toughness far more real than anything on Indestructible Machine (the cover of which depicted a woman in cut-offs drinking gasoline).  Through these changes, she's not necessarily reinventing herself as much as she's peeling back layers, peeling back any artifice in search of a musical gesture that is true to her circumstance.  

- Fleet Foxes, "Sunblind"  Shore  (Anti, 20)  D

- First Aid Kit, "Come Give Me Love" single  (Columbia, 20)  D

- Blitzen Trapper, "Requiem" Holy Smokes Future Jokes  (Yep Roc, 20)

- Robyn Ludwick, "Greyhound" Lake Charles  (Ludwick, 20)

- Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, "Middle America" Sparkle Hard  (Matador, 18)

^ Lydia Loveless, "Dead Writer" Daughter  (Honey You're Gonna Be Late, 20)

- Kurt Vile, "How Lucky (feat. John Prine)" Speed Sound Lonely KV EP  (Matador, Oct 2)  D

- Dave Hause, "Long Ride Home (feat. Brian Fallon)" Patty EP  (Soundly, Oct 23)  D

- Gillian Welch, "Fair September" Boots No 2: Lost Songs Vol 2  (Acony, 20)

- Chris Stapleton, "Cold" Starting Over  (Mercury Nashville, Nov 13)

- Jarrod Dickenson, "I'm Glad For Your Sake (But Sorry For Mine)" Under a Texas Sky EP  (Dickenson, 20)  D

- Lera Lynn, "Let Me Tell You Something" On My Own  (Lera Lynn, Oct 23)

- Jeff Tweedy, "Love Is the King" Love Is the King  (dBpm, Oct 23)

- Wilco, "Every Little Thing (Alternative)" Summerteeth (Deluxe Edition)  (Rhino, Nov 6)

- Unrighteous Brothers, "Unchained Melody" single  (Lightning Rod, 20)  D

- Band of Heathens, "Asheville, Nashville, Austin" Stranger  (BoH, 20)

- Otis Gibbs, "Fountain Square Stare" Hoosier National  (Wanamaker, 20)

- Dave Alvin, "Peace" From An Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased  (Yep Roc, Nov 20)  D

- Bella White, "Gutted" Just Like Leaving  (Bella White, 20)

- Elliott BROOD, "Out Walkin'" Keeper  (Six Shooter, 20)

- Rachel Brooke, "Loneliness in Me" Loneliness in Me  (Brooke, Oct 23)  D

- Hayes Carll, "Times Like These (Alone Together Sessions)" Alone Together Sessions  (Dualtone, 20)

- Will Kimbrough, "Late Great John Prine Blues" Spring Break  (Soundly, Oct 23)

- Great Peacock, "Dissatisfaction" Forever Worse Better  (Soundly, Oct 9)

- Shannon LaBrie, "One In a Billion" Building  (Moraine, 20)

- Clem Snide, "I'll Be Your Mirror" single  (Zahpwee, 17)

- Kevin Morby, "Don't Underestimate Midwest American Sun" Sundowner  (Dead Oceans, Oct 16)

- Tyler Childers, "Sludge River Stomp" Long Violent History  (Hickman Holler, 20)

- Molly Parden, "Who Are We Kiddin'" Rosemary EP  (Tone Tree, Nov 13)

- Tre Burt, "Under the Devil's Knee (feat. Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell, & Sunny War)" single  (Oh Boy, 20)  D

Just a couple more notable new additions this week to our Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster.  Just six months since they shared a full-length, No Time For Love Songs, The Mastersons will be adding a stark EP to your year on October 16 (Red House).  Red White & I Love You Too offers stripped-down songs reflecting the state of the nation over the past months.  California roots-rocker Rick Shea has announced Love & Desperation, a session due to be released via Tres Pescadores Records on October 23.  Last year, Andrew Bird issued a holiday EP called Hark!  On October 30, he'll be fleshing out those tracks with a handful of others, and making a full LP of seasonal stuff (Loma Vista), including covers of holiday-adjacent songs originally by John Cale, John Prine and others.  Dave Alvin is pulling together a collection of rare and unreleased recordings from throughout his career.  From An Old Guitar lands on shelves via Yep Roc on November 20.  Oh, and Fleet Foxes delivered an Early Fall surprise this week, sharing Shore (Anti), their first new studio project since 2017.  

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