ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
April 9, 2022
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
In his guise as Dead Tongues, Ryan Gustafson has titled his fifth project Dust (Psychic Hotline). Gustafson seems to be a thoughtful guy, so I'm certain there is a better reason behind the name for the collection, which reportedly arrives in the wake of a period that found the North Carolina multi-instrumentalist contemplating his future as a recording artist. A longtime contributor to Hiss Golden Messenger, and a musical companion to Phil Cook, and to HC McEntire and Mount Moriah, Dead Tongues was effectively born with 2013's Desert record. While Gustafson has favored almost mystical writing and wandering acoustic arrangements on albums like 2018's Unsung Passage, with its focus on electric guitar and more direct communication, Dust marks Dead Tongues' most prosaic collection to date.
With few exceptions, these songs were harvested from previous sessions, perhaps with roots in a pre-pandemic time. More than any other Dead Tongues record, Dust is characterized by a centrality of Gustafson's electric guitar. "Pawnshop Dollar Bills" is a dusky desert blues, just possibly the best guitar song featured on this year's ROUTES-casts. Like certain of Neal Casal's work, the cut unspools across eight minutes, climbing into high gear for the final two. I'm too tired, he confides. I'm burning in a fire / Everything I own.
This thread between past and future, whether severed or celebrated, winds throughout Dust like Gustafson's twining guitar lines. Even as he bids the past goodbye on the beautifully languid "Colorful Crosses", the singer acknowledges Someplace inside me, some old life behind me / Is crawling like ivy up a twisted trail. The country-shaded "Garden Song" finds Gustafson returning home, Where my heart is buried / In dirt and salt. A yearning vocal is joined by members of Mountain Man, the lament of Allyn Love's pedal steel coloring the skies ahead.
Dust paints with a country and folk palette, contoured with shades of Gustafson's harmonica and those lovely backing vocals from Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Molly Sarle. While his work with Hiss Golden Messenger leans more readily towards gospel and soul, there is an alluring groove to "Pawnshop Dollar Bills" or "Dust". The latter is evocative, with poetic imagery that never strays from the everyday: Cutting hair in a truck stop sink. The good-natured "Through the Glass" lopes along with the mandolin of Andrew Marlin and a chorus that reminds us: Time is looking after us baby.
Ryan Gustafson reports that, while other artists were restlessly crafting their pandemic records, he left his instruments in their cases as the months progressed, even apparently giving some thought to changing his name. In the silence of his home retreat, he instead wandered between trees, noticing their particular shapes. The one number he identifies as having written during the creation of Dust, the piano based "Ticket" tells the story of purchasing a broken VW bus from Phil Cook. The man behind Dead Tongues can't help but regard it as a metaphor: And the days just keep getting colder/ I got spark but it won't turn over / Suddenly / I'm feeling 'bout twenty years older.
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If we wait long enough to check under the hood of A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, we'll always find an overwhelming amount of new release announcements. You'll have to select the link to catch them all. For now, we'll try to highlight just five. It's really been ten years since Lyle Lovett's last project. Put a bright pin on May 13, when he returns with 12th of June (Verve). With his trusty Dukes in tow, Steve Earle's last records have celebrated the music of his late son, Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. Earle will continue this celebration with Jerry Jeff, a tribute to Jerry Jeff Walker (New West, May 27). One might hope Angel Olsen's next record will strike similar chords to Waxahatchee's Saint Cloud. Olsen's Big Time lands via Jagjaguwar on June 3. The Compass label has announced they will be releasing Nicki Bluhm's next project. Avondale Drive is also set for a June 3 release. Finally, we're anticipating the return of the Deslondes on July 8. They'll be sharing Ways & Means courtesy of New West.
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