ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
May 19, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Even as they have honed their craft in studio and on stage, Blitzen Trapper have always left room for experimentation. Over the space of a dozen records and an almost full-scale line-up change, Eric Earley and co. have ironed out their charmingly knotty early work, flirting with a sort of mainstream recognition, but never fully given over to the popular demand to become My Morning Jacket II, or Band Of Horses Jr. Throughout, Earley has proven a mastery of balancing pop with folk, juxtaposing the cosmic jam with accessible immediacy.
To borrow a phrase from a later album, those early Earley projects were indeed wild and reckless. From 2007's Wild Mountain Nation through '08's breakthrough with Furr, across Black River Killer and 2010's Destroyer Of the Void, Blitzen Trapper were considered part of a proto-folk movement alongside Fleet Foxes, the aforementioned Band Of Horses and others. But none proved as capable of wrenching things up sonically as the Portland ensemble. Releases during the 2010's produced some terrific stuff, especially on American Goldwing, but this period seemed more about focusing as opposed to flirting with the fringes. 2017 saw all of Blitzen Trapper's founding members aside from Earley depart, and the songwriter himself had been dedicating an increasing amount of his time and emotional energy to his advocacy role with Portland's unhoused population.
An obsessive writer and a voracious reader, Eric Earley identified his first album with his new bandmates, 2020's Holy Smokes Future Jokes as deeply inspired by Tibetan Book Of the Dead. That engagement with Buddhist philosophy continues on 100s Of 1000s, Millions Of Billions, a second Yep Roc collection that incorporates his experience with everything from the Mahayana sutras to George Saunders' masterful novel, Lincoln In the Bardo. Earley has also indicated that he returned to cassettes he had made in the years prior to Blitzen Trapper, as the young man explored his songcraft during a time without expectations or guardrails.
That's an atypically lengthy lead-up for one of our reviews, though it sets the stage well for this Episode's appreciation of an artist and his band as they venture into what might be considered a third artistic period. Eric Earley has never been an especially traditional lyricist, praising REM's Michael Stipe as an early influence for his intensely insular, sometimes almost indecipherable writing. Like Stipe, Earley doesn't simply spout nonsense, but populates his songs with references, allusions, and imagery instead of straight stories. "Cosmic Backseat Education" might be the most traditionally structured lyric on Millions, sketching a picture of a young boy's musical education in the backseat of the family vehicle: The only kind of magic is when the radio's on. With a fluttering harmonica and driving bass and drum, the tune motors at a satisfying pace, the most reliably Blitzer Trapper-sounding piece on the new collection.
Millions' opener, "Ain't Got Time To Fight" also delivers an identifiable folk-rock groove, even in its nearly lush arrangement. But Earley opts for an almost playful lilt to his lyric: The spirit led me out for forty days and forty nights / But the devil showed up with a film crew baby / And he shot it all in black and white. By and large, the songwriter's new lyrics are Bukowskian, even psychedelic in their imagery, and much of the music follows suit. Eric D Johnson and Anna Tivel join Blitzen Trapper for "Planetarium", featuring fiddle, banjo and vocal harmony, a song Earley shares is about learning to surrender to the flow and impermanence of all things. He sings: I've been drifting like a ghost through the memories I love most / Like a grifter trading tarnished coin for future days / But with each death I'm reborn, only to fall upon the thorn. The acoustic number is an especially lovely example from a disc full of such understated moments.
"So Divine" typifies the psychedelic or cosmic thread that glows throughout Millions. The arrangements are never obtuse, but trade in floaty acoustic pop: I'm a stray old dog / A walking lightning rod / Or just a lonely god. "Hesher In the Rain" demonstrates a restrained fingerpicking atop brief glints of atmospherics, while "Dead God Of the Green Arising" returns to the the band's early prog roots, with shifting time signatures and a touch of British pastoral folk behind Earley's skilled vocal delivery. Headlights on the river as we pass, he sings on "View From Jackson Hill", Embers light the world to make us laugh / Wondering if there's time to make some changes. It's as peaceful a record as Blitzen Trapper have made to date, even as Earley never manages to shake the pop formulas at the core of his writing.
While we'd hazard a guess that the influence of those 90s cassettes come through most strongly on the LP's more experimental moments, it's impressive that Eric Earley weaves a seamless line between his very early and his present day writing. "Hello Hallelujah" boasts a chunky guitar pulse, while the highlight, "Cheap Fantastical Takedown" embraces the inherent balance between the comedy and the tragedy in our existence. Like a contemporary Wilco track, the song trades in simplicity, even when it casts a buzzy guitar passage to the mix: A good woman's going to see through your plan / And she's gonna love you anyway because she can / Ah damn.
On 100s Of 1000s Millions Of Billions, Blitzen Trapper are both economical and far-reaching, creating cosmic-colored folk-pop whose lyrics open upward, even as they find inspiration in the everyday survival of the City's unhoused population. In interviews, Eric Earley has floated the idea of cosmic humility, the freedom that can be found in recognizing the fact of humankind's fleeting presence in the grand scheme. Where the songwriter's sometimes heady philosophizing might have made for heavier, plodding musical output, there's a refreshingly breezy, thoughtful but carefree aspect to much of Blitzen Trapper's new sessions. As he declares, There's room enough for us upon the chain.
Let's spotlight a handful of the new additions to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, our own obtuse and plodding release calendar. In 2009, Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, M Ward, and Jim James pooled their talents under the Monsters Of Folk moniker. While there was never a follow-up, in 2012 the members, along with new Monster Will Johnson, convened to record a few new tracks, a handful of which are present on the 15th anniversary reissue of their collection, set for a June 14 appearance (ATO). A buzz name among rising country artists, Kaitlin Butts has readied her follow-up to 2022's successful what else can she do. Expect Roadrunner! by June 28, supported by the Soundly group. Karen Jonas has announced a date for her next LP. Rise and Fall Of American Kitsch should appear on August 9 (Yellow Brick). A one-time musical cohort with Sarah Lee Guthrie, Johnny Irion continues his solo career following last year's one-off with Mike Stinson. Irion's new collection, Sleeping Soldiers Of Love, lands wherever music matters on August 9 (Blackwing). Finally, we'll herald the return of the always satisfying Futurebirds. Also on August 9, they plan to debut Easy Company, their first for the Dualtone label.
ROUTES-cast, May 19, 2024
^ Blitzen Trapper, "Ain't Got Time To Fight" 100s Of 1000s Millions Of Billions (Yep Roc, 24)
- Futurebirds, "Bloom" Easy Company (Dualtone, Aug 9) D
- Avett Brothers, "Orion's Belt" Avett Brothers (Ramseur, 24)
- Monsters Of Folk, "Disappeared" Monsters Of Folk (Deluxe) (ATO, Jun 14) D
- Beachwood Sparks, "Falling Forever" Across the River Of Stars (Curation, Jul 19)
- Elvis Costello, "Long Distance Love" Long Distance Love: Sweet Relief Tribute To Lowell George (Flatiron, 24) D
- Nathaniel Rateliff & Night Sweats, "David and Goliath" South Of Here (Stax, Jun 28)
- Luke Winslow-King, "If I Were You" Flash-A-Magic (Bloodshot, Sep 6) D
- Billy Allen + the Pollies, "Lady Luck" single (Single Lock, 24) D
- Tim Easton, "Arkansas Twisted Heart" Find Your Way (Black Mesa, 24)
- Johnny Irion, "Sleeping Soldiers Of Love" Sleeping Soldiers Of Love (Blackwing, Aug 9) D
- Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters, "Pocket Song" The Ones That Stay (Mule Kick, Aug 9) D
- Adeem the Artist, "Part & Parcel" Anniversary (Four Quarters, 24)
- Rainy Eyes, "You Just Want What You Can't Have" Lonesome Highway (Royal Potato Family, Jul 12)
- Angela Autumn, "Rocky Doom" single (Tone Tree, 24) D
- Joe Kaplow, "Avery" Posh Poodle Krystal and Toe (Fluff & Gravy, 24)
- Waverley Pickers, "#Croptopnroll" Early Hits (Anderson, 24) D
- Kaia Kater, "Mechanics Of the Mind" Strange Medicine (Free Dirt, 24)
- Hermanos Gutierrez, "Barrio Hustle" Sonido Cosmico (Easy Eye, Jun 14)
- Jake Xerxes Fussell, "Leaving Here Don't Know Where I'm Going" When I'm Called (Fat Possum, Jul 12)
- Kaitlin Butts, "Roadrunner" Roadrunner! (Butts, Jun 28)
- Orville Peck, "How Far Will We Take It (ft Noah Cyrus)" Stampede Vol 1 EP (Warner, 24)
- Shelby Lynne, "Over and Over" single (Monument, 24) D
- Ashley Monroe, "Risen Road" single (Monroe, 24) D
- Jenny Don't & the Spurs, "You're What I Need" Broken Hearted Blue (Fluff & Gravy, Jun 14)
- Danielia Cotton, "Kiss An Angel Good Morning" Charlie Pride EP (Cottontown, 24) D
- Left Lane Cruiser, "Motown Mash" Bayport BBQ Blues (Alive Naturalsound, Jun 7)
- Spencer Thomas, "Desperate Man" Joke Of Life (Strolling Bones, 24)
- Decemberists, "Oh No!" As It Ever Was So It Will Be Again (YABB, Jun 14)
- Dr Dog, "Tell Your Friends" Dr Dog (We Buy Gold, Jul 19)
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