STUFF SCOTT's WHiFFED ON

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

December 30, 2021

Scott Foley, purveyor of confetti

We're flopping around in that yearly musical purgatory, that adequately-appointed waiting room between mid-December and mid-January where blogs stop publishing, labels stop releasing and we contemplate our mortality in the midst of a pile of shredded giftwrap. Here at R&B HQ, we've tentatively assembled a docket of reviews for the coming weeks (ambitiously efforting The Kernal, Jamestown Revival, Goodnight Texas, Whitmore Sisters, Lost Dog Street Band, Ryan Culwell, and Anais Mitchell), though promoters generally prefer that we restrain from publishing those until we're closer to the release date.  

This leaves us awash in our year-end feelings, second-guessing our recent favorites lists and sweeping up pine needles from the dead Christmas tree behind the trailer. Makes it the perfect time for a quick game of Stuff Scott's Whiffed On. These are records from the past half year or so about which I feel we should've made a bigger noise. Some were represented in our weekly ROUTES-casts, but weren't given any review attention in a year that admittedly found us struggling to generate as many reviews as we'd have liked. Some of these records flirted with our year-end favorites list, but were ultimately edged out. But all merit your attention as you await the mid-January releases. 

And some of these whiffs haven't even made an appearance on our Spotify ROUTES-casts. Case in point, a pair of overlooked records by Illinois singer-songwriter Trevor Sensor. Released respectively in June and September, On Account of Exile Vols 1 & 2 provides a dark and beautiful experience to disappear into. The sessions can be challenging in their despair, but are impressive in their execution. Sounding like a more ambitious Tallest Man On Earth, Sensor surrounds himself with theatrical arrangements that serve as a perfect soundtrack to one artist's prophetic fever dream in the face of our country's decline. Exile might've landed high on our year-end lists if we'd caught wind of them earlier. Sensor elaborates: I basically wanted to musically express the world blowing up. 

On her first proper solo record in a decade (November's I Thought of You), Canada's Julie Doiron pairs with Daniel Romano for perhaps her sharpest project in years. Since her earliest days with Eric's Trip and as Broken Girl, through her collaborations with Gord Downie, Okkervil River and Wooden Stars, Doiron has created music that is raw, intimate and genuine. She typically eschews polish and production in favor of immediacy, laying her plainspoken vocal atop unadorned accompaniment, sometimes in Spanish or French. Collaborator Romano and his outfit embrace and expand upon Doiron's deceptively simple songs, adding angular electric guitar and tumbling drums to emphasize the edgier aspects of her artistry. I Thought of You serves as a great entry point to Doiron's generous catalog. 

A couple of our whiffs were given plenty of space on our weekly ROUTES-casts, but probably merited a more deliberate mention. Thinking here of Scott Hirsch's underappreciated Windless Day (Echo Magic, October), or Margo Cilker's terrific debut on Pohorylle (Fluff & Gravy, November). Cilker's project has earned a spot on several other year-end lists, and I should have at least included "Tehachapi" or "Brother Taxman Preacher" on our favorite songs recap. 

In other cases, an album that is on our radar just never makes it onto those weekly playlists. I don't add anything unless I'm committed to representing it over at least a couple weeks. Believe it or not, even with room for thirty new songs for every ROUTES-cast, sometimes there's just not enough space to do that, and stuff necessarily falls to the wayside. Another Canadian artist, Ada Lea occupies that middle ground between indie and folk-pop on her second full-length, one hand on the steering wheel and the other sewing a garden. Hers is an increasingly important lane in our kind of music, even as synths and contemporary textures lure listeners further afield. I'm fine being lured. The Duluth duo of Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk, Low have been selectively featured, especially for their lovely 2015 Ones and Sixes. While their September release Hey What (Sub Pop) lands on the more experimental side of their sonic equation, it features some stunning moments. Parker's distinct voice is one of my favorites, even as it's buffeted in fuzz and feedback. Closer to home, you'll want to dip into July's blues-shaded Click Click Domino from British expats Ida Mae, and Crocus by The Ophelias, an indie-folk record for which I teetered on the brink of a review for weeks. These acts belong on your list of listening resolutions for the early New Year. 

As far as my own blogging resolution for 2022, I hope to find the emotional bandwidth and the discipline to write and share more regular reviews, though time is what it is. The best way for you, the eager listener, to keep tabs on stuff I've whiffed on is to click on the tab for A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, our compulsively complete release calendar for our kind of music. And, of course, give some thought to following us on Spotify, where we're real good about publishing thirty new songs on our ROUTES-cast playlists every Sunday. 

Let's wrap this up 2021 ...