Month: January 2017

After nearly twenty years of performing, Oklahoma’s Travis Linville has performed worldwide from dive bars to festivals to YouTube music shows to television appearances on CMT and The Tonight Show. Stepping to the front of the stage with his country-and-blues-tinged indie folk, Linville is set to release Up Ahead February 3, 2017.

To support his constantly evolving skill as a songwriter, Linville enlisted the help of studio musicians who have also performed with him live. David Leach (John Fullbright) joins on upright bass, Ryan Jones (Oklahoma Opry) plays keys, and two diverse percussionists round out the sound: Matt Duckworth (Flaming Lips, Miley Cyrus) and Mike Meadows (Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson). Linville himself performed all vocals, guitars, lap steel, pedal steel, mandolin, and dobro. The result is a well-crafted piece of art in the form of a ten-song trip down a country lane.

Listeners can almost smell the “Flowers in Your Hair,” smelling  the rain as it falls in some skilled mandolin from Linville. Working subtly, the lyricism has a folk Americana flair. Shifting to a more indie feel, “Wishes” still paints with vivid cinematic imagery: authentic and real. Linville is a skilled multi-instrumentalist who is great at pulling in other talents: Jones steps in on keys during “Two Times the Fool,” pulling the stroll into an introspection that everyone can relate to. Nearly halfway through the album, mid-tempo road trip “Finding My Way” is driven more by bass, percussion, and slide guitar.

Country influences are king on “Bar Room,” as the sly humor of Linville’s songwriting is blatantly cool here. You can almost smell the stale beer and sawdust on the floor. The birth of some great music took place in the dingy places, and this song has that East Texas drawl. A great songwriter makes the listener feel, and “Fade to Winter” is a great transition. Sequencing and an intelligent mix makes this song a stronger statement than maybe it started out as lyrically.

“Up Ahead” is the title track for a reason. It encompasses all elements of this musician, from his influences to his experiences: Okie music is influenced strongly by all genres from Texas country to the Nashville sound. This is a beautiful way to start wandering down the road out of this album. “Waltz Ahead” is a slow dance, plain and simple–and that is its beauty. It is is the only song in three quarter time on the album, making it stand out with even more emphasis. Taking that stand-out quality to the next level, “Going Down Easy” is a showcase of musicianship with a solid blues vibe. “Worried Mind” caps off this acclaimed solo release.

Rich with textures, Up Ahead is a soulful and authentic sensory journey of an everyman with a guitar. After this release, listeners will hear the beauty of his truth standing in the spotlight. Get a copy today.–Lisa Whealy

1. “Drop a Pebble” – Cálido Home. The rhythms, melodies and arresting female vocal tone create a skipping, dancing, beautifully complex acoustic tune. The melodies are particularly memorable.

2. “Take Me Home” – Nick Nash. A straight-ahead alt-country song with strong vocals is the vehicle for some working-class musings that Jason Isbell would love: “Give me a Jesus that I know, not the one you say I never will / Give me the ignorant working saints, not the enlightened rich with their fame.” The rest follows suit; really great writing here.

3. “Autumn Moon” – Johnny Nobles. The chorus melodies here are lovely: the lead melody dips low against a counterpoint harmony that soars gently upwards. The strings that come in right after seal the deal on this singer/songwriter tune. (editor’s note: current link goes to a remixed version.)

4. “The Courageous Getaway of Ciro and Madalina Fuentos” – Keith Monacchio. The lyrics here are the centerpiece, detailing a compelling, emotion-filled tale of danger and fear. The tune is part of the Rock against Hate charity compilation.

5. “One Day” – Alex Hedley. Hedley’s voice is evocative and emotive over rippling, smooth acoustic guitar.

6. “Will to Abide” – Nathan Andrew Jones. A swooning fiddle and keening pedal steel are sweet counterpoint to an earnest melody and “weary love” lyric in this (alt?) country tune.

7. “Merry Margaret” – David and Brittany Farkas. The mandolin and baritone male vocal give this full-band folk tune an unusual, intriguing sound.

8. “State of Grace” – Last Builders of Empire. One section of a longer song cycle about the afterlife, this post-rock tune sets an elegant mood that reflects the title, but with a bit of distortion and grit to ground it.

9. “Baracus” – Moyamoya. The enigmatic and attractive album art for this song belies the tensions in it: The guitar riffs are really wiry and brittle for a post-rock tune, the tune has a sort of optimistic cast in the key, and the percussion keeps a lockstep beat reminiscent of krautrock. But, right when confusion reaches maximum, a wall of sound appears. So there’s something for every post-rock fan here.

10. “Idle” – Sthlm Falls. Without the searing lead melody, this would be a rolling acoustic guitar composition; without the guitar, this would be a minimalist ambient piece. Together, it’s not quite either thing, creating its own place in the world.

11. “Folds” – Nathan Shubert. The delicate, precise, rushing nature of the piano here makes the keys almost sound like pizzicato strings. The clicking of the keys as they hit and the moving of parts make this an intimate yet oddly intense piece. It’s powerful but in a restrained mood; it’s full of energy but sounds just as much like a rippling river as the rush of people in a subway station. It’s gorgeous.

1. “Seventeen” – 3D Friends. A wistful power-pop tune that kept me on the edge of my seat for a lot of the song, wondering “What’s going to come around the corner?”

2. “Damage” – TeamMate. Dance-oriented indie rock that’s somewhere between MGMT and Grouplove. In other words, it’s the audio equivalent of a confetti cannon.

3. “Walk Away” – Delta & Dawn. There’s some Bastille in this punchy pop song. The more obscure reference (but one that I can’t shake) is a distinctly Relient K-esque mesh between the chorus vocal melody and the electric guitars.

4. “Darkerside” – //AMISTAD//. Attitude-laden rap-singing leads the way through an ominous electro-pop environment; it’s not the type of thing I’m generally into, but the vocals just fit so perfectly against the synth backdrop.

5. “Quiet” – MILCK. Pulls off the neat trick of seeming more like an electro-pop tune than it actually is, as this piano-led pop tune is built on a trilling chorus vocal melody, thumping percussion, and strong female empowerment lyrics.

6. “Go There” – Small Forward. This is all the best elements of ’90s and early ’00s indie-rock thrown into one great tune: hazy guitar chimes, sweetness in the vocal melodies, punchy drums, quiet/loud/quiet dynamics, and an overall mood of slackery but good-natured chill. It’s just fantastic. Also, the band name is a basketball reference and I dig it.

7. “Faux Depart” – Cyclope Espion. I’m on a French kick recently; the rhythmic patterns of their language are different than English, which intrigues my ear. This folk-pop/pop-rock tune sounds like early Counting Crows, but with a saxophone and (yes) French language lyrics.

8. “Alcaline” – Laura Lefebvre. This French-language tune pours the rhythms into American indie rock-style melodies; if you don’t listen too closely, you can’t even tell its French. The arrangement is tight and lithe as well–particularly in the percussion–making this an impressive indie-rock tune.

9. “Pages” – Magana. Fans of Wye Oak will love this subtle, textured, serious, female-fronted, guitar-oriented indie rock.