iSRAEL NASH - OZARKER

ROUTES & BRANCHES

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

October 22, 2023

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

There are few artists in our kind of music as recognizable as Israel Nash. His arrangements are typically thick with sound and reverb, both acoustic and electric, organic and cosmic, intimate and open to the heavens. Nash's familiar voice echoes across the tracks, craggy and textured as Neil Young but very capable of carrying a tune with soul. His brand of roots rock is commonly labeled heartland, even if it is well-rooted in the soil of his Dripping Springs, Texas studio. Israel Nash is too often likened to Petty, Seger, and Springsteen, but after seven studio projects he merits his own lane for his ambitious, swarming sonic stamp. 

That seventh project, Ozarker, is the first of four full albums (!) Israel Nash has promised over the coming months via his Desert Folklore label. While recent records like 2018's Lifted and 2021's Topaz were built around the people and places and nature surrounding his current Texas Hill Country environs, the new sessions find inspiration from stories of his family and fellow Ozarkers of his Missouri birthplace. The narrator for the reflective "Lost In America" is haunted by his wartime PTSD, spectres of which can't help but effect his family as well: My brother Ron looked up to me / Now he comes by the apartment twice a week / Just to make sure that I'm doing okay. The fiery "Going Back" channels the theatrical melodrama of Jim Steinman as the singer joins his brother for one last heist to cement their legend: I am old, but there was a day / They'd say my name from Laredo to Cheyenne. 

Ozarker is coproduced with veteran boardman and instrumentalist Kevin Ratterman, who has worked most notably with My Morning Jacket, New Multitudes, and Strand of Oaks, in addition to joining Israel Nash on Topaz. New songs like "Can't Stop" and "Travel On" epitomize the guitar- and drum-heavy arrangements on sessions that favor the anthemic and the soaring. The former percolates with 90s roots pop fervor, the singer spinning these wheels in his eagerness to leave the shadows of his hometown far behind: Not sure where it starts / But this is where it ends. Curtis Roush from Bright Light Social Hour fuels many of the album's incandescent guitars, with Patrick Hallahan serving on drums. "Travel On" is a passionately hopeful call to escape the pull of the city for kinder horizons. Synths amplify many of Ozarker's tracks, never taking center stage but widening Nash's arrangements. 

While reviewers have praised his music as cinematic, the storytelling nature of some of these new cuts adds more of a literary quality to Nash's vision. The ominous "Shadowland" paints a stark picture of life in the Ozarks: I'm living in a circle drawn for me long ago ... From Belton to Ozark / And back to the hill / Down at the bottom / And getting up still. The measured acoustic strum of "Pieces" adds to this picture: Feel a little lost in a place I know. Israel Nash's sound remains expansive, and most of his songs are still driven by yearning and heart, but these story elements root many songs in the daily struggles of real folk. 

Especially since his one-two punch of Rain Plans and Silver Season, this thread of hope and uplift has been Israel Nash's sonic calling card, even amidst the soulful horns and divisive politics of Topaz. The brightly-burning "Roman Candle" presents Nash at his hot and dangerous best, a melodic comet: Wolves may be circling me / But I don't let them in. With its shalala chorus and cosmic chiming electric guitars, the album's title track is another highwater moment, an infectious number that's Rambling and rugged / Rough and tumble as they come. 

You'll be able to track Israel Nash's stuff on his new Cosmic Eagle substack (it's like an IN social media profile on really good psychedelics, he promises). While listeners may identify certain of Petty's American heartland mythologies, or may spot signs of Springsteen's glory days, you'll also hear the urgency of War on Drugs and the soulful heart of Nathaniel Rateliff. Ozarker is more than the sum of its influences, however, and Nash leads his cohort into hard-won sonic territory that he's carved out in the years since his 2009 debut. In the end, Israel Nash simply sounds like Israel Nash. 

- Great Peacock, "Damn Good Feeling" single  (Great Peacock, 23)  D

- Jaime Wyatt, "Back To the Country" Feel Good  (New West, Nov 3)

^ Israel Nash, "Pieces" Ozarker  (Desert Folklore, 23)

- Duff Thompson, "Shapeshifter" Shadow People  (Mashed Potato, Oct 27)

- Zach Russell, "Milk & Honey" Where the Flowers Meet the Dew  (Carlboro, Dec 1)

- Sierra Ferrell, "Fox Hunt" single  (Rounder, 23)  D

- Pert Near Sandstone, "Clouds Are Gathering" Waiting Days  (PNS, 23)

- Wilder Blue, "Super Natural (ft Brent Cobb)" single  (Hill Country, 23)  D

- Willi Carlisle, "Critterland" Critterland  (Signature Sounds, Jan 26)  D

- Charley Crockett, "Killers Of the Flower Moon" single  (Son of Davy, 23)  D

- Abby Hamilton, "Lucky" #1 Zookeeper (of the San Diego Zoo)  (Blue Gown, 23)

- Vincent Neil Emerson, "Golden Crystal Kingdom" Golden Crystal Kingdom  (La Honda, Nov 10) 

- Cody Jinks, "Outlaws and Mustangs" single  (Late August, 23)  D

- Cactus Lee, "Southwestern Bell" Caravan  (Org Music, 23)

- Morgan Wade, "Halloween" single  (Ladylike, 23)  D

- Jon Dee Graham, "Lost In the Flood" Only Dead For a Little While  (Strolling Bones, Nov 10)

- Harvest Thieves, "Friendly Fire" As the Sparks Fly Upward  (Harvest Thieves, 23)

- Mightmare, "Killer Killer" single  (Kill Rock Stars, 23)  D

- Andrew Bryant, "Shiloh" Prodigal  (Sentimental Noises, Nov 3)

- Ha Ha Tonka, "Carry It Around" Blood Red Moon  (Ha Ha Tonka, 23)

- Nathan Graham, "Pride" Saint of Second Chances  (Pravda, 23)  D

- Holly Macve, "Suburban House (ft Lana Del Rey)" single  (Macve, 23)  D

- Michael Nau, "Shiftshaping" Accompany  (Karma Chief, Dec 8)  D

- Allison Russell, "Take Me To Church" Spotify Singles  (Fantasy, 23)  D

- Mali Velasquez, "Horse Trough" I'm Green  (Acrophase, 23)

- Jeff Tweedy, "Filled With Wonder Once Again" single  (Dead Oceans, 23)  D

- Molly Parden, "Weakest Link" Sacramented  (Parden, 23)

- Dylan LeBlanc, "Dust" Coyote  (ATO, 23)

- Sun June, "16 Riders" Bad Dream Jaguar  (Run For Cover, 23)

- Daniel Bachman, "Someone Straying Long Delaying" When the Roses Come Again  (Three Lobed, Nov 17)  

New this week on A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster: Iron & Wine's first full live recording is the companion piece to a forthcoming documentary chronicling a North Carolina concert performance. Who Can See Forever is set for a November 17 release date (Sub Pop). On the heels of last year's excellent Peculiar, Missouri, Willi Carlisle has announced a follow-up. Produced by Darrell Scott, Critterland will be the songwriter's first project for the Signature Sounds label, expected on shelves January 26. The Canadian alt.bluegrass outfit Dead South ventured to Mexico City to record their new album. Chains & Stakes arrives February 9th courtesy of the Six Shooter label. A one-time member of Prison Book Club with William Matheny, John R Miller, and Adam Meisterhans, Tucker Riggleman will be sharing a new collection with his Cheap Dates band. February 17 is the planned date for Restless Spirit. Finally, Corb Lund's next record will be dedicated to Ian Tyson. The all-acoustic El Viejo will appear via New West Records on February 23. 

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