Suicide of Town, Ben de la Cour (from the Julian Records release Sweet Anhedonia)
There isn’t a lot of sunshine in Ben de la Cour’s music and Sweet Anhedonia is no exception. Heck, the album is titled after the condition of not being able to experience pleasure. But that’s part of the Nashville singer-songwriter’s magic – de la Cour is a prodigious storyteller, the vividness of his lyrics as powerful as the darkness that they possess.
De la Cour sets the tone from the start, singing “There’s a sinkhole fallen from the cold grey sky where they scraped that trooper off the highway side” in album opener “Appalachian Book of the Dead”. As the lyrics suggest, the song is restless and brooding. A wailing fiddle and guest vocalist Luella only adding to its intensity.
Even a love song takes its own path in de la Cour’s hands. “Numbers Game”, with duet vocals from Becky Warren, chronicles a couple struggling to make ends meet. They try to not let it destroy their relationship but recognize that possibility as de la Cour sings:
Oh it’s a numbers game
You start out high, you get low down
There’s broken down hearts all over this town,
Oh it’s a numbers game
“Maricopa County” is an epic six minute tale of secrets and, well, death. The song is filled with character studies of the county residents, a place where, as de la Cour describes:
A man can live how he wants to live and be who he wants to be
He can be the man he is when folks are looking
Or the one he won’t let them see
He then goes on to describe two high schoolers who have gone missing, a store owner who perishes in a fire, and a man whose suicide is viewed as suspicious. Like I said, don’t go looking for happy-go-lucky from de la Cour. What you’ll find, however, is a songwriter whose work has brilliant lyrical depth.
The album’s lone – and glorious – rocker, the anthemic “Suicide of Town”, is what passes for cheery on Sweet Anhedonia. The song acknowledges how a partner has helped the song’s protagonist escape unhealthy behaviors.
But I ain’t going back to the suicide of town
Things don’t feel the same since you came around
It used to get me high but now it’s bringing me down
I ain’t going back, I ain’t going back
It ain’t knocking at my window like it was before
Since you laid your boots on my bedroom floor
I ain’t going back to the suicide of town
I ain’t going back, I ain’t going back
Even when de la Cour is at his most hopeful, it’s still in the context of things that have gone wrong. Album closer “I’ve Got Everything I Ever Wanted” finds the singer lamenting that he’s “Just another left foot walking through a right shoe world” before reflecting that, while he used to “watch through the windshield at the coming of the night”, he’s now “Now I’m sitting in the kitchen, laughing at the morning light”.
Musically, producer Jim White and de la Cour expand the instrumental palette compared with the singer-songwriter’s previous releases. “Shine on the Highway” has a dark, theatrical vibe driven by ominous percussion and horns while “Birdcage” has a foreboding, banjo-driven angst. On other songs they take a minimalist approach, as with the piano ballad “Palookaville” (with its wonderful, restrained trumpet solo mid-song).
Sweet Anhedonia is a record that commands attention with its lyrical depth and musical texture, and one that exceptionally rewards those who dig into its dark beauty.
Simple Things, The Band of Heathens (from the BOH Records release Simple Things)
For an album born of the pandemic, Simple Things is surprisingly positive in its outlook. The sentiment is clear right from the start with album opener “Don’t Let the Darkness”. The song begins with a funky rhythm but quickly builds into the rootsy charm that is a The Band of Heathens hallmark. The uplifting melody of the chorus is the perfect match to the lyrical tone as the band sings about moving on from a failed relationship:
Don’t let the darkness get in front of you
You gotta just keep on moving, keep on pushing through
Don’t let the darkness stand In your way
A lot closer to a little further away
“Heartless Year” and “I Got the Time” are a pair of glorious rockers. The former is ostensibly about fixing a broken relationship but certainly has some parallels to living through a pandemic as the band considers, “The light I see at the end of the tunnel’s either daylight creeping or a fast train coming” before adding ”Good Lord, have a little mercy, please”. The latter rumbles like an outtake from The Rolling Stones.
“Stormy Weather” has some Leon Russell style grooves, never a bad thing, while “Damaged Goods” is a fine slice of Texas country, right down to the slide guitar that gives it extra bite. Both songs are great examples of the group’s rootsy soulfulness and inherent musicianship.
The title track is an elegant and moving ballad that makes for glorious album centerpiece. A piano opening quickly builds to a wonderful string-laden glory as the group sings about, well, enjoying the simple things in the face of discouragement and disappointment.
Getting by on simple things,
Letting go of material dreams
Search for quiet in my mind
Take a minute, look up at the stars,
Go for glory on the air guitar
Step outside, find my voice and sing
Pleasure in simple things
It’s a fine sentiment… even in non-pandemic times.
Love You Anyway, Devon Gilfillian (from the Fantasy Records release Love You Anyway)
I’ve always enjoyed the classic age of R&B – you know, the era of Motown, Stax, and Muscle Shoals. The artists and songwriters of that generation captured attention with melodies and lyrics that, although simple, elicited tremendous emotion. Nashville’s Devon Gilfillian is a worthy heir to that tradition.
Love You Anyway is classic R&B packaged in a fine contemporary sheen. Perhaps not surprisingly, love is a frequent topic in his songs. “The Recipe” an upbeat love song as Gilfillian sings, “’Cause I’m all about you and me, now that’s the recipe”. “Right Kind of Crazy”, which brings in some wonderful gospel elements mid-song, looks at how a relationship evolves after its initial stage.
“Better Broken” ventures into 1970’s territory, calling to mind Marvin Gaye’s more sexual bedroom classics. Gilfillian’s falsetto only adds to that mystique.
Gilfillian doesn’t shy away from politics, as “Let the Water Flow” demonstrates. The song, a glorious gospel ballad, speaks about the need to protect voting rights, ostensibly in Georgia but clearly not limited to that state.
Album closer “Love You Anyway” brings it all together in glorious fashion, a moving plea for patience and solidarity in the desire for change in ourselves and society.
Everybody’s looking for a new solution
You know it takes time
Every change don’t have to be a revolution
But open your eyes
Give Love, Matt Sucich (from the Five and Dime Records release Holy Smokes)
“You’ve got your questions and I’ve got mine,” Matt Sucich sings in “After Life”, the opening track on his latest release. What follows are eleven songs that explore core questions about navigating complicated feelings and life questions. Although Sucich does attempt to offer answers at some points, he mostly paints the picture with a thoughtful and wizened perspective.
Depending on the song, his attitude veers between fragility and annoyance with the occasional note of sharp humor and cynicism. In the former category are songs like “Let Me Die (Before They Find Me Like This)” and “Real Time”, which finds the singer considering “mankind can sure find a way to make a simple act seem hard “. His attention turns to romantic relationships on “Upper West Side”, a melancholy remembrance of a past relationship (“Ain’t it funny how one life can lead you down so many lives? And we all get a little lost sometimes.”) and the poignant “Waste It” that finds him telling his partner, “the roads are forever changing and no certain path can be taken, but if you won’t leave and there’s nothing worth staying… you waste it.”
In the latter category are “All the Same”, where he remarks, “And I think everyone’s a little bit full of shit; I don’t think everybody necessarily means it” and “Give Love” which, as counterpoint to its hopeful chorus, offers points of view like:
But that’s the thing about modern times
You can fix anything with a dollar sign
A broken heart, a broken soul, a broken phone
Sucich closes the album on an optimistic note with “Oh! To Make Her Smile”, singing “Oh to make her smile is to feel so alive, oh to make her smile is to feel so goddamn high.” Like the rest of the album, the song flows, both lyrically and musically, like a casual conversation – one that it is wondrously inviting.
Express Train, Fred Davis (from the Colemine Records release Cleveland Blues)
R&B and blues doesn’t get much more authentic than this. As the story goes, Davis worked in a factory alongside Howard Husock, the father of Eli “Paperboy” Reed. Husock recorded Davis and his band in his parent’s living room more than 50 years ago in hopes of finding the singer some gigs. While the audio certainly reflect the age and the location of its recording, the music and performances are timeless. From straight up blues to grooving R&B, from solo guitar and piano performances to full band jams, Cleveland Blues is one hell of a musical outing.
Read Howard Husock’s story about Fred Davis and the long lost album here.
Green Sand, Mary Lee Kortes (featuring Joe Jackson) (from the Lakeside Lounge Records release Will Anybody Know That I Was Here)
New York City’s Mary Lee Kortes is one of the most wonderfully idiosyncratic musicians in Americana. She follows up her acclaimed Bob Dylan tribute album and book with an expansive concept album: the fictional tale of 1930’s singer-songwriter Beulah Rowley. The songs capture aspects of Rowley’s life and ambitions, telling vivid stories without getting lost in minute details. The approach enables each song to stand on its own even as they create an arc to Kortes’ tale.
The musical arrangements, crafted by Kortes with legendary producer Hall Willner, use a broad instrument palette that includes, among other things, clarinet, accordion, fiddle, and banjo, as well as plenty of guitar and percussion. The songs come to life as pop standards with jazzy elements reflective of the historical period they represent, yet they still maintain a modern freshness.
Been a Fool Once, Daddy Long Legs (from the Yep Roc Records release Street Sermons)
If you like your rock and roll gritty and bluesy then Daddy Long Legs are the band for you. Their latest album crackles with a potent mix of NYC attitude and Mississippi juke joint bite. “Nightmare”, for example brings together harmonica, slide guitar, and gang vocals for a throwback to 1960’s blues rock while, as the title suggests, “Rockin’ My Boogie” is ripe for a dance floor throw down. “Two Dollar Holler” and “Ding-Ding Man” have a bit of Southern flair with rinky tink piano and banjo, respectively. The instrumental “Harmonica Razor” recalls the J. Geils Band in their fiery days – certainly not a bad thing… “Been a Fool Once” is raw, raucous, and downright catchy… which is an apt description for the entire album.
If We’re Gonna Breakup, Let’s Make It Take Forever, Brett Newski (from the Nomad Union release Friend Rock)
It seems cliché to reference the Beatles “With a Little Help From My Friends” in reference to Brett Newski’s latest album, but it certainly fits. The Milwaukee-based singer-songwriter invited a number of his musical friends to add their voices to the appropriately titled Friend Rock. But make no mistake – the music, lyrics and attitude are all Newski.
Friend Rock crackles with a mix of pop and grunge, not to mention lyrics that embrace humor even as they explore deep emotions and anxieties. A fine example is “Nevermind, Not Nirvana”, a song that channels the Replacements song more than it does the Nirvana album. Newski sings:
Hear those famous last words
“It’s not you, it’s me, I love you”
We will be fine
Nevermind
As for the friends… “Chemicals”, featuring Matthew Caws of Nada Surf, is a furious pop anthem with a sing-along chorus that would fit well on a Caws release. Miles Nielsen joins for “If We’re Gonna Breakup, Let’s Make it Take Forever” a catchy ode to being in a failing relationship but not wanting it to end:
We’re way too addicted
To the love, hate, tears and pleasure
So if we’re gonna break up,
Let’s make it take forever
“Why Even Bother”, featuring Brian Vander Ark of The Verve Pipe, has a gritty and glorious guitar riff that calls to mind Local H. The singers lash out as much at the social decay they see in the world as the they do the friend to whom they are speaking.
Saying things that mean nothing
Like “it is what it is”
Or ”having said that”
Because why even bother?
If you’re looking for a sing-along summer, Newski has you covered. Sing-alongs are ripe for making new friends – and perhaps that’s what Friend Rock is all about.
Yada Yada, Blah Blah Blah, Metal Marty (from the Acetate Records release Metal Marty’s Greatest Hits)
Supersuckers guitarist Metal Marty steps out to make a bit of racket on his own. And what a fine racket it is – the kind that you’d expect to hear at a dive bar, one where the band plays behind a wall of chicken wire.
Not surprisingly, the guitars are gritty and loud, most notably on “Workin’ My Ass Off”, Magic City” and “Yada Yada, Blah Blah Blah” as Marty spits lyrics with a voice that somewhat recalls Axl Rose. “What’s All This” starts out with some mariachi trumpet but quickly brings in ska elements that call to mind Rancid.
But it’s not all raucous electric guitars. “For Whatever It’s Worth” and “Bumps and Bruises” feature some fine acoustic guitar pickin’. The former, in particular, is great country bar band fare as Marty and crew proclaim, “For whatever it’s worth, I fucked up and it’s gonna get worse.” Exactly the kind of attitude one expects to find at a dive bar, right?
Portions for Foxes, Lydia Loveless and Jason Hawk Harris
I don’t often include stand-alone singles in my playlists, but this one is too good to pass up. Lydia Loveless and Jason Hawk Harris share a fun take on the Rilo Kiley classic, no doubt a teaser for their respective albums that are due for release later this year.
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.