ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
September 2, 2026
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Some of the artists we hold dearest can be acquired tastes. We're careful recommending them, knowing that they could do damage in the wrong ears. Here we're thinking of names like Bill Callahan (and Smog), Bonnie Prince Billy (and Palace Brothers), Joe Pernice (and Scud Mountain Boys). We began this week considering assembling an entire playlist of these lovely train wrecks. Then we got to listening to David Berman (Silver Jews, Purple Mountains).
Berman could also be part of our Gone Too Soon playlist, one of those tragic figures whose foreshortened lives can't help but add to their legend. Berman's own story speaks to a lifelong struggle with depression and addiction, brought to an end with his 2019 death.
We begin our Lookback with a song from Early Times, an almost unlistenably lo-fi LP that brought together two very early Silver Jews EPs. At that time, both Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich played along with Berman, albeit under pseudonyms in hopes of shaking the accusation that Silver Jews was just a Pavement side project. On their own, those early recordings can sound awfully raw and unfinished, amateurish at best. The value of a playlist like ours is to suggest Berman's remarkable growth and evolution as a songwriter, catching glimpses of this brilliance at its inception.
Now under their proper names, Makmus and Nastanovich continued to contribute to Silver Jews records going forward. But the focus of projects like American Water and Bright Flight was rightly on David Berman's lyrical gift. Set to a shambling, countrified expression of indie rock, he was a poet who fronted a band, an accomplished writer whose output usually rhymed.
Following 2008's Lookout Mountain, he dissolved Silver Jews and retreated from the spotlight. 2019's Purple Mountains featured Berman with the support of members of Woods and Dan Auerbach, for a terrifically promising result. Lamentably, David Berman ended his life just weeks after its release.
We never apologize for the music we love. In fact, one of the purposes of R&B is to bring attention to artists like David Berman, ideally telling readers why you should care. Even as the project of a troubled soul, Silver Jews and Purple Mountains have added light and color to our lives. We're gonna live in Nashville / And I'll make a career / Out of writing sad songs / And getting paid by the tear ...
DAViD BERMAN: thirty favorites
- "Secret Knowledge Of Back Roads" Early Times (2012)
- "Trains Across the Sea" Starlite Walker (1994)
- "New Orleans"
- "Rebel Jew"
- "How To Rent a Room" Natural Bridge (1996)
- "Black and Brown Blues"
- "Dallas"
- "Pretty Eyes"
- "Random Rules" American Water (1998)
- "Smith & Jones Forever"
- "Honk If You're Lonely"
- "Wild Kindness"
- "Tennessee" Tennessee EP (2001)
- "I'm Gonna Love the Hell Out Of You"
- "Slow Education" Bright Flight (2001)
- "Room Games and Diamond Rain"
- "Horseleg Swastikas"
- "Friday Night Fever"
- "Punks In the Beerlight" Tanglewood Numbers (2005)
- "Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed"
- "I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You"
- "How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down"
- "Suffering Jukebox" Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea (2008)
- "San Francisco BC"
- "Candy Jail"
- "We Could Be Looking For the Same Thing"
- "That's Just the Way That I Feel" Purple Mountains (2019)
- "All My Happiness Is Gone"
- "Darkness and Cold"
- "Snow Is Falling In Manhattan"
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