JUSTiN WELLS - THE UNiTED STATE

ROUTES & BRANCHES  
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
August 30, 2020
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

What a ridiculous amount of new records the final release date of August has brought us!  I ran out of fingers and toes before I reached the end of the list.  These last minute additions to August's bounty make it more challenging to select our five favorites, but we'll give it a try:

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT AUGUST?!!
- Kathleen Edwards, Total Freedom  (Dualtone, Aug 14)
- Arlo McKinley, Die Midwestern  (Oh Boy, Aug 14)
- Jerry Joseph, Beautiful Madness  (Soundly, Aug 21)
- HC McEntire, Eno Axis  (Merge, Aug 21)
- Justin Wells, The United State  (Singular, Aug 28)

Close readers will recognize that this is in order of appearance.  Closer readers may notice the tear stains which dot the screen, the product of having to omit strong offerings from Old 97s, Jason Molina, Ashley Ray, Zephaniah Ohora, Will Johnson and others off the list.

Concept albums can be risky things.  Play your cards wrong and you risk seeming heavy-handed and overly sincere.  But our kind of music loves a good story, and there's no harm in a skilled writer stretching a theme from one end of a record to the other.  And, to quote a forgotten 1988 song by the British alt band The Godfathers, there's no more common tale than Birth, School, Work, Death. 

While their roots are in completely different musical soil, that tune came to mind this week as I was previewing Justin Wells' new The United State, a collection defined by the Kentucky artist as a concept piece surveying the arc along which we all pass, from birth to the grave.  It lands four years after Wells' solo debut, 2016's Dawn In the Distance, an album that sat just outside my ten favorites for the year, and featured "The Dogs", my second favorite song of 2016.  That project came on the heels of the dissolution of Wells' previous act, Fifth On the Floor, when they were practically at the door to success.  Dawn allowed the songwriter to explore a sound of his own, incorporating more soul and increasingly introspective lyrical content.  

Even as it occupies roughly similar sonic territory, The United State is more ambitious, less beholden to the well-plowed fields of songs about life on the road and the stage.  Bookended by a pair of brief, ambient instrumentals, Wells has written pieces corresponding to several pivotal moments in our lives.  "Screaming Song", for instance, addresses the loneliness of both birth and death: It won't be the last time I am on my own.  The tune also serves as our intro to the outfit behind Wells, most notably Laur Joamets on guitar and producer Duane Lundy on keys.  The band walks the alt. edge of country, allowing for a touch of atmospherics and just enough soulfulness to compliment Wells' Kentucky twang.  The singer creates an apt portrait of a being drawing its first breath from our alien setting: What big old damned world did I land on?  

One of The United State's most appealing melodies, "No Time For a Broken Heart" is inspired by the spirit of youthful abandon.  The lyrics are seemingly offered as life advice from a more experienced mentor:  I'd like to lie and tell you it gets better /  That we don't all fall apart sometime / But there's glory there waiting for some fool to come and take it ...  "After the Fall" explores the gradual realization that we've linked our life with that of another, for better and worse.  With some fiery guitar and a tremendous, soulful George Jones-esque vocal from Wells, the piece alternates between a romantic and a more practical perspective on relationship:  Now the leaves are all changing / And this house is a home / And the fire will still be burning / When the last flower's gone.  

Justin Wells' new songs stand alone just fine, and the narrative thread that unites them is more a suggestion than a distraction.  The pervasive spirit of the session reveals more confidence musically and philosophically that the artist's debut.  "It'll All Work Out" also showcases the CD's diverse musical reach.  Lee Carroll lays the groundwork with bluesy keys, bolstered by some fine Southern fried guitar from Joamets and Alex Munoz, driving towards a swampy groove upon which the Wells acknowledges the familiar experience of putting our nose to the 9-to-5 grindstone, trusting that our commitment will merit appropriate results:  I can't keep up with Mr Jones / When his feet are up and mine are worn to the bone / I've left no stone unturned, I'm crying out.  Wells is especially eloquent as the story makes its way towards the later years, characterized by winds of uncertainty amidst moments of both reflection and gratitude.  The album's most driving track, "Walls Fall Down" practically embraces that precarious perspective:  With your hand in mine, we'd laugh the joke of time right in its face / Lord, for a minute there it felt like we'd live forever in this place.  

Perhaps the most ready comparison to The United State would be Sturgill Simpson's 2014 Metamodern Sounds record, the sessions for which also featured guitarist Laur Joamets (and producer Duane Lundy has worked with Simpson on earlier projects).  That said, Justin Wells' songs are well rooted in the stuff of day-to-day existence, the fingernail dirt and the hopeful plans.  As the title attests, there is no more relatable story.  Wells is quoted at the Americana UK site:  The United State is ultimately about love and joy, and I think from top to bottom that's what shines through.  If I was in a valley with the last record, I'm on top of the mountain now.  


- Black Twig Pickers, "Cardinal 51 (feat. Steve Gunn)" Seasonal Hire  (Thrill Jockey, 15)
- Squirrel Nut Zippers, "Train On Fire (feat. Andrew Bird)" Lost Songs of Doc Souchon  (Southern Broadcasting, Sep 25)  D
- Bonny Light Horseman, "Buzzin' Fly" single  (37d03d, 20)  D
- GospelbeacH, "Mick Jones (live)" Once Upon a Time In London  (Curation, 20)  D
- Half Gringa, "Arsonist" Force To Reckon  (Half Gringa, 20)
- Will Kimbrough, "Trains" Spring Break  (Daphne, Oct 23)  D
- Chris Stapleton, "Starting Over" Starting Over  (Mercury, Nov 13)  D
- Laura Veirs, "Turquoise Walls" My Echo  (Raven Marching Band, Oct 23)
- Pylon, "Gravity (remastered)" Pylon Box  (New West, Nov 6)  D
^ Justin Wells, "After the Fall" The United State  (Singular, 20)
- HC McEntire, "Hands For the Harvest" Eno Axis  (Merge, 20)
- Angel Olsen, "What It Is" Whole New Mess  (Jagjaguwar, 20)
- Jerry Joseph, "(I'm In Love With) Hyrum Black" Beautiful Madness  (Soundly, 20)
- Vince Bell, "Poetry, Texas" Texas Plates  (Paladin, 99)
- TK & the Holy Know-Nothings, "Heat" Pickled Heat EP  (Mama Bird, 20)  D
- Adia Victoria, "South Gotta Change" single  (Atlantic, 20)  D
- Band of Heathens, "Before the Day Is Done" Stranger  (BoH, Sep 25)
- Ruston Kelly, "In the Blue" Shape & Destroy  (Rounder, 20)
- Yo La Tengo, "Wasn't Born To Follow" Sleepless Night EP  (Matador, Oct 9)  D
- Shannon LaBrie, "It's Good To Be King" Building  (Moraine, Sep 25)
- Avett Brothers, "Prison To Heaven" Third Gleam  (Loma Vista, 20)
- Laura Cantrell, "Love Vigilantes" Trains and Boats and Planes  (Diesel Only, 08)
- Zephaniah Ohora, "Heaven's On the Way" Listening To the Music  (Last Roundup, 20)
- Brent Cobb, "Shut Up and Sing" Keep 'Em On They Toes  (Ol' Buddy, Oct 2)
- Austin Lucas, "Already Dead" Alive In the Hot Zone!  (Cornelius Chapel, Oct 30)  D
- Have Gun Will Travel, "Melancholy Moon (Everything Dies)" single  (HGWT, 20)  D
- Delta Spirit, "The Pressure" What Is There  (New West, Sep 11)
- Lera Lynn, "Are You Listening" On My Own  (Lera Lynn, Oct 23)  D
- Old 97s, "Confessional Boxing" Twelfth  (ATO, 20)
- Allison Moorer, "Easy In the Summertime" Crows  (Moorer, 10)


Dare we look at what September brings us?  Yes.  Yes, we do.  Blitzen Trapper, Delta Spirit, Elliott BROOD, Lydia Loveless.  And, at the two-thirds point of 2020 new records are being dropped into A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster at a perilous rate.  This week, we heard about William Elliott Whitmore's plans to drop his next record on October 16.  I'm With You  will land via Bloodshot Records.  Gothic folk songstress Rachel Brooke has declared a date for her next long-awaited full-length.  Expect Loneliness In Me wherever music matters on October 23.  Coming off the release of a pair of excellent projects, Becky Warren will try for a third when she shares The Sick Season that same day.  Austin Lucas stepped out of the studio for a live album last year.  Cornelius Chapel will be producing his next project, Alive In the Hot Zone! on October 30.  And savior of country music, Chris Stapleton will aim for the fences with his next record.  Starting Over is due November 13 on Mercury.  Your weekly ROUTES-cast awaits:  

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