BUCK MEEK - TWO SAViORS

ROUTES & BRANCHES  

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

January 10, 2021

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Adrianne Lenker has one of my favorite voices. The primary writer and vocalist for Big Thief, she has also released some outstanding acoustic guitar-and-voice records. Even beyond those, however, my favorite Adrianne Lenker projects present her as artistic foil for Buck Meek, also a member of Big Thief. You'll find those warm, unpretentious sessions packaged by the Saddle Creek label as A-Sides and B-Sides, both released in 2014. 

Like Lenker, guitarist and vocalist Buck Meek pursues a solo lane as well, most recently with his 2018 self-titled collection. The side-hustle partners Meek's sweet but fractured voice with laid-back folk and country settings. Two Saviors (Keeled Scales), the singer-guitarist's second full-length follows suit, following Meek and his collaborators down to the corner of Royal and Desire in New Orleans.  

Recorded live to tape, these sessions demonstrate an immediacy and a purity that comes of talented friends sharing space. That cohort features producer Andrew Sarlo, who has worked previously with Big Thief and Courtney Marie Andrews among others. Brother Dylan Meek joins on keys, and multi-instrumentalist Mat Davidson from Twain is featured throughout. 

The free-flowing beauty of acoustic songs like "Two Moons" is woven like a rustic fabric, warmed by the sound of fingers on frets. The range of Buck Meek and his band is most evident in "Two Moons (morning)", where the same tune is revisited with a very different, jazz-tinged spirit, clopping percussion and murmured banter substituting for the careful acoustic artistry: Two moons rose today / And we slept until eight in the evening. 

Meek is an intuitive musician and lyricist, lending his work a psychedelic touch. His written reflections on his own work read like poetry. Songs like the soulful "Pareidolia" suggest images more than they tell stories: Maybe it's a baby / Maybe it's a cottonmouth swallowing its tail. The song's bubbling keys and pastoral vibe bring to mind Hiss Golden Messenger's earlier work. More than his self-titled solo debut, Two Saviors brings touches of country in singing pedal steel and even fiddle on the impressionistic "Pocketknife". 

While much of Saviors takes its time to unspool, Meek strikes a healthy balance with fuller pieces such as "Candle", a cowrite with Lenker. Heaven is a motel / With a telephone seashell, he keens atop pedal steel and comfortable backing vocals. "Cannonball Pt 2" adds a layer of electric fuzz. Throughout, Buck Meek's voice suits the proceedings perfectly, a creaky cousin to Phosphorescent's Matthew Houck or Tallest Man on Earth. Like Adrianne Lenker, Meek's delivery is unconventional but appealing, even on tunes like the off-kilter "Ham on White". 

It bears mentioning that neither Adrianne Lenker nor Buck Meek especially follow the Big Thief formula on their respective solo projects. When the quartet comes together as they have recently for some new recording here in Colorado, the bandmates demonstrate a musical telepathy, merging their talents for a larger, often darker sound that can spiral into a Crazy Horse-like squall. It's a beautiful noise, but one that's still informed by the lovely folk and country we hear on Two Saviors. 

- Adrianne Lenker, "Two Reverse" Songs  (4AD, 2020)

^ Buck Meek, "Candle" Two Saviors  (Keeled Scales, Jan 15)

- Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy, "Miracles (feat. Ty Segall)" single  (Drag City, 21)  D

- Duff Thompson, "Long Haul" Haywire  (Mashed Potato, 20)

- Cat Power, "Good Woman" You Are Free  (Matador, 03)

- Menahan Street Band, "Queens Highway" Exciting Sounds of  (Daptone, Feb 26)

- Brit Taylor, "Married Again" Real Me  (Cut a Shine, 20)

- Stuffy Shmitt, "She's Come Unglued" Stuff Happens  (Shmitt, 20)

- Bottle Rockets, "I Don't Wanna Know" South Broadway Athletic Club  (Bloodshot, 15)

- BJ Barham, "The Years" The Years: MusicFest Tribute to Cody Canada  (Right Ave, 21)

- Jeffrey Foucault, "Red Hard Thinking" Deadstock: Uncollected Recordings 2005-2020  (Foucault, 20)

- Weather Station, "Atlantic" Ignorance  (Fat Possum, Feb 5)

- Steve Earle, "Ain't Glad I'm Leaving" JT  (New West, 21)

- Sarah Borges & Broken Singles, "False Eyelashes" Diamonds in the Dark  (Sugar Hill, 07)

- Cody Jinks, "No Words (live)" Red Rocks Live  (Late August, 20)

- Have Gun Will Travel, "Now I Lay Me Down (demo)" Raw Materials: Home Demos  (Burke, 20)

- Langhorne Slim, "Colors" Strawberry Mansion  (Dualtone, Jan 29)

- Margo Price, "A Little Pain (live)" Perfectly Imperfect at the Ryman  (Loma Vista, 20)

- Bowerbirds, "Home Wrecker" Azaleas EP  (Psychic Hotline, 20)

- Nathaniel Rateliff, "A Song For You (live)" Willie Nelson American Outlaw  (Blackbird, 20)

- Vagabon, "Reason to Believe (feat. Courtney Barnett)" single  (Nonesuch, 21)  D

- Cory Branan, "There There Little Heartbreaker" Mutt  (Bloodshot, 12)

- Hold Steady, "Heavy Covenant" Open Door Policy  (Positive Jams, Feb 19)

- Charley Crockett, "I Can Help" single  (Next Waltz, 21)  D

- Pine Hill Haints, "Morning Star" 13  (Arkam, 20)  D

- Charles Ellsworth, "Laundromat" Honeysuckle Summer  (Burro Borracho, Mar 5)

- Shelby Lynne, "Wasting Away in LA" The Healing: A-Tone Recordings  (Extreme, 20)

- Tommy Alexander, "River Run Down" single  (Alexander, 21)  D

- Heather Valley, "Whip Poor Will" single  (Valley, 20)  D

- Big Thief, "Vegas" Masterpiece  (Saddle Creek, 16)  

New release announcements have starting picking up over just the last couple days, giving us stuff to add to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster. In addition to the Pine Hill Haints' 13 that crawled over the finish line the last days of 2020, we hear that there's a new Lasers Lasers Birmingham EP due January 29. Two years after their satisfying Gold Past Life, Eric D Johnson's Fruit Bats have announced The Pet Parade. Their forthcoming full-length will appear March 5 via Merge. One-time drivers of Squirrel Nut Zippers, Jimbo Mathus and Andrew Bird are making sweet sounds of collaboration again. These 13 hits shelves on March 5 (Wegawam). And also on that same March 5, you can expect Maverick Thinker, the new project from William the Conqueror (Chrysalis). On March 19, country classic Loretta Lynn shares Still Woman Enough, a collaborative effort featuring Margo Price, Tanya Tucker and others. Finally, April will bring There Used To Be Horses Here, a session featuring Amy Speace backed by Neilson Hubbard's Orphan Brigade. 

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