ROUTES-cast JANUARY 2, 2023

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

January 2, 2023

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

This time of every year tends to be a waiting room for music bloggers, most of whom refrain from posting until the release machine fires up again in later January. For us here at R&B HQ, the respite gives us a time to indulge our abiding regret about stuff to which we should've paid more attention. 

This Episode we'll bring you up to speed with records that have been released since our last ROUTES-cast. Let's also highlight a few of these really good records that we want to make sure nobody misses. Some of them were actually well-represented on our weekly Spotify ROUTES-casts, so I won't say we exactly whiffed on them. But maybe they didn't receive the sort of appreciation they deserved across the wider blogosphere. 

We'll begin with a Nashville-based trio that scratches our itch for anything that evokes the melodic riffs of Big Star. From the under-appreciated Single Lock Records, the Prescriptions released Time Apart before Thanksgiving. With production in the hands of Ben Tanner and Brendan Benson, the new collection delivers tighter songwriting and more direct arrangements than their promising 2019 Hollywood Gold album. If the good things haven't come yet / You haven't opened your eyes, sings singer-guitarist Hays Ragsdale on "April Blossoms" atop crunchy guitars and bright chimes. "Fire Moon" landed just off my favorite songs list for the year, the best Ryan Adams tune not actually written by Ryan Adams. Drummer John Wood brings some terrific fills throughout, on a record that also features label partner John Paul White and Tanner himself on keys. Atwood magazine called the Prescriptions as much Wilco as they are Lucero. I'd also add bands like the Pollies, Jimmy Eat World, and even Spoon to our RIYL list for this band that merits wider attention. 

Also back in November, we began adding tracks from Wherever You Aren't, the new collection from singer-guitarist Elizabeth Moen. From Chicago by way of Iowa, Moen introduces her set thusly: These songs are about mental health, joy, panic attacks, falling in love, falling out of it, and accepting that sometimes it will stay with you forever. Moen's songs are largely characterized by this emotional vulnerability - My coffee is often as bitter as I am, she sings in her brassy hiccup. "Headgear" recalls Rachael Price of Lake Street Dive, the stop/start intro tripping towards a mid-song rhythmic breakdown. Earning a place on our year-end favorite songs list, "Synthetic Fabrics" goads her hollow-body guitar to the front of the mix, the tune alternating appealingly between jazz, pop and country. Elsewhere, Moen takes a bluesy turn for "Ex's House Party", and adds keys and horns to the sultry "Soft Serve". Elizabeth Moen is as distinct a guitarist as she is as a vocalist, with the keen observational eye of Courtney Barnett.

We recall Seattle's Rocky Votolato from a run of records that encompassed 2006's Makers, 07's terrific Brag and Cuss and 2010's True Devotion. In 2020 the songwriter re-emerged from nearly a decade of domestic retreat with Wild Roots (Spartan, Sep 9), a generous 15-song cycle that expresses Votolato's feelings about those close to him in song: I just want to sing a happy song / For the ones I've pushed away. A one-time punk bandleader (Waxwing) whose solo offerings have run the gamut from full-band to subtler affairs, this new collection pares things back to a bare minimum that encourages the songs to shine. The best part is still ahead of us, he sings on "Breakwater", Probably not, but tonight let's pretend like it is. These are intensely personal gestures for Votolato, especially as he addresses the passing of his young adult son on "Becoming Human", piano and fiddle joining a strummed acoustic guitar. Like Matthew Ryan or even Elliott Smith, he's not beyond making some noise, but understands that sometimes the quiet speaks more powerfully. "Little Black Diamond", "23 Stitches" and "Southpaw" are exquisite. 

From Philadelphia, Shannen Moser intended for The Sun Still Seems To Move (Lame-O, Sep 30) to be a solo acoustic project prior to opening the sessions to a small complement of friends. Layers to "Paint By Number" are unveiled like an auditory cake: Strings, piano, woodwinds, electric guitar. Moser's voice is a perfect folk instrument, with strains of Vashti Bunyan or Karen Dalton. The harmonies on "Oh My God" are revelatory, and Moser carries guitar, keys, violin, banjo, and percussion throughout. Their instruction to collaborators: Let's just really lean into the sadness of the world. There's magic in the more impressionistic "Liminal", and it's only that magic that holds things together during the unexpectedly transcendent bridge of "Two Eyes". Sun Still Seems To Move is intricate and melancholy, entrancing like the Quaker Sacred Harp singing of Moser's Pennsylvania childhood. 

And hey, Adeem the Artist, it matters when you release your records! White Trash Revelry (Four Quarters) landed on December 2, just as bloggers were proudly affixing the bow to their superlatives lists. Here at R&B HQ, we managed to shoehorn it into our favorite records, but didn't manage to catch it prior to our State of the Genre list where it unarguably belonged as well. Adeem Bingham has garnered an unusual amount of press attention, much of which pegs its story on the songwriter's nonbinary identity. While that's an essential aspect of Adeem's artistry, the takeaway here is the remarkable quality of their songs. Haunting the collection is an American inheritance of trauma and depression, the stains of racism, religious exclusion and addiction that are most present on "Heritage of Arrogance" and "Painkillers & Magic": Holiness and horror, addiction, loss, and blessing. While the embedded themes may strike many as subversive, the accompanying music fits seamlessly within the country-folk parameters, with up-tempo romps like "Run This Town" and "Going To Hell" that would make Charlie Daniels proud. White Trash Revelry is ripe with pathos on "Middle of the Heart", and favors stories over confrontational diatribes. Country and folk music have always been rich with working class mythology. Adeem the Artist makes certain that the stories that make up this folklore include tales like their own. Revelry should rightly compete for year's best. 

Finally, we'll do our duty as forward-thinking Americans to ... well, to look forward for a list of the ten pending records we're most looking forward to (courtesy A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster): 

Margo Price, Strays (Loma Vista, Jan 13)

Myron Elkins, Factories Farms & Amphetamines  (Low Country, Jan 13)

Pony Bradshaw, North Georgia Rounder  (Pony, Jan 27)

HC McEntire, Every Acre  (Merge, Jan 27)

Joe Henry, All the Eye Can See  (Worksong, Jan 27)

Sunny War, Anarchist Gospel  (New West, Feb 3)

Brit Taylor, Kentucky Blue  (Cut A Shine, Feb 3)

Lucero, Should've Learned By Now  (Liberty & Lament, Feb 24)

Dougie Poole, Rainbow Wheel of Death  (Wharf Cat, Feb 24)

And, of course, we'll reserve a spot here for That Album That Will Take Us By Surprise

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- Phosphorescent, "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" single  (Phosphorescent, 22)

- Butch Walker, "Walkin' Back to Georgia (ft Elizabeth Cook, Katie Pruitt)" single  (New West, 22)  D

- Sunny War, "Higher (ft David Rawlings)" Anarchist Gospel  (New West, Feb 3)

- Hallelujah the Hills, "Clam Crab Cockle Cowrie" single  (Discrete Pageantry, 22)  D

- The Arcs, "Eyez" Electrophonic Chronic  (Easy Eye, Jan 27)

- Myron Elkins, "Wrong Side of the River" Factories Farms & Amphetamines  (Low Country, Jan 13)

^ Adeem the Artist, "For Judas" White Trash Revelry  (Four Quarters, 22)  D

- Adam Hood & Jason Eady, "Broke Not Broken" single  (Southern Songs, 22)  D

- Loose Koozies, "I Won't Be Leaving Here (ft Kelly Jean Caldwell)" single  (Outer Limits Lounge, 22)  D

- Parker McCollum, "Stoned" single  (MCA Nashville, 22)  D

- Elijah Ocean, "Deadweight" single  (Ocean, 22)  D

- James Steinle, "South Texas Stranger" single  (Steinle, 22)  D

- Pony Bradshaw, "Notes On a River Town" North Georgia Rounder  (Pony, Jan 27)

- Zach Bryan, "Country Roads (ft Charles Wesley Godwin)" All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster  (Belting Bronco, 22)  D

- Jenny O, "Solitary Girl" Spectra  (Mama Bird, Feb 24)

- Johanna Samuels, "Little Buckets" Scam Likely EP  (Samuels, 22)  D

- Joe Henry, "All the Eye Can See" All the Eye Can See  (Worksong, Jan 27)  D

- Kassi Valazza, "Early Morning Rising" single  (Fluff & Gravy, 22)  D

- Fran, "Palm Trees" Leaving  (Merge, Jan 27)

- HC McEntire, "New View" Every Acre  (Merge, Jan 27)  

- Milk Carton Kids, "When You're Gone" single  (Far Cry, 22)  D

- Wild Child, "Wearing Blue" single  (Reba's Ranch, 22)  D

- Lucero, "Raining for Weeks" Should've Learned by Now  (Liberty & Lament, Feb 24)

- Bad Ends, "Ballad of Satan's Bride" Power and the Glory  (New West, Jan 20)

- Kevn Kinney, "Wishes" Think About It  (Drivin N Cryin, 22)  D

- Shinyribs, "I Gotta Get Drunk" One Night In Texas: Next Waltz's Tribute to Red Headed Stranger  (Next Waltz, Apr 28)  D

- Neal Casal, "Cora Jones" single  (Casal, 22)  D

- Left Arm Tan, "California Sands" single  (LAT, 22)  D

- Will Quinlan, "Blind Leads Blind" single  (Ironweed, 22)  D

- Hurray for the Riff Raff, "Life on Earth (ft Preservation Hall Jazz Band)" single  (Nonesuch, 22)  D

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