ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
September 20, 2020
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Sometimes I'm surprised by the artists for whom I've never devoted a formal review since this thing began more than twelve years ago. I've certainly included stuff from every Otis Gibbs record in playlists, from earlier folk records to 2014's excellent Souvenirs of a Misspent Youth and 2017's Mount Renraw. Gibbs has proven to be remarkably consistent since his debut, producing and self-releasing quality collections of homegrown folk 'n americana (from Wanamaker, Indiana and East Nashville) with one bespectacled eye trained on the plight of the working class. Gibbs' irregular Thanks For Giving a Damn podcast is an unfiltered glimpse behind the man behind the beard as he interviews peers and holds court.
As Otis Gibbs tells it on his most recent podcast, he crafts each album around a set of groundrules, using limitations as a creative tool, to quote the man himself. His new collection, Hoosier National, for instance, is built on Gibbs' rediscovery of an old Les Paul electric guitar, equipped with heavy gauge strings and wired to a 1963 Princeton Tuxedo amp. He restricted himself to alternate tunings, and playing with his fingers as opposed to using a pick. That rude, thick, imperfect guitar largely and wonderfully defines Hoosier National, a guitar record without guitar solos but with ten great stories to tell.
And while likens himself to a ten ton dinosaur / Making my way into a tar pit, Gibbs' new songs are often shadowed by the current state of our nation. "Nine Foot Problem" finds him surveying a factory town in decline, a once proud entity that's now faded, leaving workers to turn to bibles, bottles and loans to get us through our sleepless nights: They're just five-inch solutions to a nine-foot problem / And maybe it's time to move on. "Faithful Friend" stares down the darkness of our times, laying down a steady groove with organ and drums underlaying that Les Paul. The song pokes at the place where media messages meet our need for easy answers: It takes most of a lifetime to create anything worthwhile / But I'd rather be the soil than the plow.
More often than not, Otis Gibbs plays the role of a captivating fireside storyteller, whether he's describing the 1981 murder of a legendary hobo on "Lord Open Road", or sharing his father's dream of building a motorbike around a found engine on the bluesy "Panhead": When he shut it off, I remember asking why was it leaking oil / He said son that's how you know it's a Harley / 'Cause it marks its territory. Gibbs' Midwest roots run deep, especially as he evokes a bygone Indianapolis music scene, the spirit of which might be harder to come by today. I wanna know the swing of tremolo / Swayin' to the reverb springs, he sings on "Fountain Square Stare". Like a ghost of past glories, the narrator wanders abandoned warehouses and forgotten streets.
Built on the back of these largely forgotten instruments, Gibbs takes a certain pride in describing his music as beat up and obsolete, just like me. And while there's nothing revolutionary on Hoosier National, the collection serves his strongest musical statement lyrically and artistically, the portrait of an artist simply pursuing his muse with regard for little more than his own integrity. A stonesy statement of purpose, "Blood" rides that beautifully busted guitar sound like his father's motorbike, echoing down empty streets and off abandoned buildings: I'm made of dust and dirt and rage / Lessons learned the hardest ways. It's most fitting to close this appreciation by quoting another line from a record full of repeatable lyrics: Hail to the ragged, to the lonesome and the weak / Hail to Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee / Hail to the Union, POW, MIA / May the road fall behind me / As my wheels roll along.
- Hard Working Americans, "Opening Statement" Rest in Chaos (Melvin, 16)
- Robyn Ludwick, "Don't Cry Love (feat. Ray Wylie Hubbard)" Lake Charles (Ludwick, 20)
^ Otis Gibbs, "Lord Open Road" Hoosier National (Gibbs, 20) D
- Elizabeth Cook, "These Days" Aftermath (Agent Love, 20)
- Dwight Yoakam, "Long Way to Go" Three Pears (Warner, 12)
- Waylon Payne, "Born to Lose" Blue Eyes (Carnival, 20)
- Karen Jonas, "Tuesday" Southwest Sky and Other Dreams (Yellow Brick, 20) D
- Low Cut Connie, "Help Me" Private Lives (Contender, Oct 13)
- Bobby Bare Jr, "Sad Smile" A Storm - A Tree - My Mother's Head (Bare, 10)
- Shannon LaBrie, "Angels Fall" Building (Moraine, Sep 25)
- Jeff Tweedy, "Guess Again" Love Is the King (dBpm, Oct 23) D
- Lambchop, "Reservations" TRIP (Merge, Nov 13) D
- Faye Webster, "Better Distractions" single (Secretly Canadian, 20) D
- Elliott BROOD, "Full of Wires" Keeper (Six Shooter, 20)
- Pokey LaFarge, "Washed In the Blood" single (Maisie Music, 20) D
- Nude Party, "What's the Deal" Midnight Manor (New West, Oct 2)
- Pete Krebs & Gossamer Wings, "All My Friends Are Ghosts" All My Friends Are Ghosts (Cavity Search, 20)
- Old Crow Medicine Show, "Dearly Departed Friend" Remedy (ATO, 14)
- Old 97s, "This House Got Ghosts" Twelfth (ATO, 20)
- Angie McMahon, "River (piano)" Piano Salt EP (Dualtone, Oct 2)
- Elvis Perkins, "See Monkey" Creation Myths (Petaluma, Oct 2)
- Nathaniel Rateliff, "Look It Here" Nathaniel Rateliff & Night Sweats (Concord, 15)
- Jon Snodgrass, "boyzIImen (feat. John Moreland)" Tace (A-F Records, Oct 9)
- Austin Lucas, "The Times" Alive In the Hot Zone! (Cornelius Chapel, Oct 30)
- Bonnie Whitmore, "Fine" Last Will & Testament (Starlet & Dog, Oct 2)
- Robert Ellis, "I Must Be In a Good Place Now" single (Next Waltz, 20) D
- Malin Pettersen, "Hometown" Wildhorse (Die With Your Boots On, Oct 16) D
- David Quinn, "Born to Lose" Letting Go (Quinn, Oct 23) D
- Cody Jinks, "Give All You Can" I'm Not the Devil (Jinks, 16)
- Tyler Childers, "Long Violent History" Long Violent History (Hickman Holler, 20) D
This week's adds on A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster include a solo record by Norway's Malin Pettersen, former frontperson for Lucky Lips. Wildhorse arrives October 16, courtesy of Die With Your Boots On Records. Indiana-based David Quinn has announced an October 23rd release date for his sophomore record. Letting Go is the follow-up to his promising debut, last year's Wanderin' Fool. Just four years after her passing, Daptone Records will be sharing a covers collection from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Just Dropped In is due October 23, and offers the singer's takes on songs originally by Gladys Knight, Prince, Stevie Wonder and more. Fifteen years ago, singer-songwriters Matthew Ryan and Neilson Hubbard released a collaboration 'neath the moniker Strays Don't Sleep. The long-awaited sequel arrives with A Short Film for a Long Story, an EP set for an October 30th release. Lambchop has been making all sorts of interesting choices over the past couple releases. For TRIP (Merge, Nov 13), Kurt Wagner shares frontman duties with his bandmates on a series of covers from artists like George Jones, Wilco, Steve Wonder and more.
A behind-the-scenes update: Blogspot has changed the site editor we use to build and publish these posts. I'm still trying to figure how to link to our usual weekly Spotify ROUTES-cast. Until then, just open Spotify and search for "routesandbranches" to access this most recent playlist, as well as many others from past months.
No comments:
Post a Comment