– Michael, did you already listen to a fantastic singer/songwriter album that will come out in January?
– Yep, Trevor, let’s say one is really good, and one is fantastic. You want to include very experimental song albums, too, I assume?
– Of course, of course.
– Good, now here comes the surprise: both of my favourite albums of the moment are very, very traditional. They are both so much rooted in tradition that they could have been done decades ago.
– So you don’t speak of East India Youth, this Doyle guy? Nearly everybody’s singing his praise. Me, too.
– I cannot say much about „Total Strife Forever“. Just have heared one track today, in the web. Promising, but still don’t know if that will be a „grower“. For sure, it’s 400 % more experimental than my favourites.
– Now c’mon, tell me the good one!
– Well, it has a strong Nashville vibe, and I’m not normally looking for strong Nashville vibes. Some of the songs are quite conventional, even in ther lyrics, some are outstanding. Songs in Cinemascope, black and white. Doug Paisley is from Canada, and I enjoy listening to „Strong Feelings“ on long car rides. It’s a red wine- and candlelight record, too. Revealing more and more subtleties with every listening. The trick of things that are deceptively simple.
– And the fantastic one?
– It’s from a woman. Whenever I had heared her in the past, I never liked her singing too much. Seemed to be too close to the old ways of Country, for my ears at least. Nothing subversive, too close to the formula.
– And now?
– And now I do listen to the new album, it’s the voice I remember, the music is – again – very traditional, a bit of Country, a bit of Gospel, a bit of Rock, a bit of everything, I normally hate these tastefully mixed bags, but now I’m stunned. I don’t want to miss a single line, no fucking conventional chord… the songs blow me away.
– A change of your taste?
– No, no. I think she has just performed the best songs of her life. She has even written some of them with her husband, I mean this is not my ideal of a unique personal vision. So what? I really want to creep under the skin of every song, you know, breathe them in. And the voice has changed, apart from growing older. It has become slower, even in the up-tempo passages. It’s Rosanne Cash and her album „The River & The Thread“. I fell in love with it from one moment to another, it’s definitely deep music. Not a single weak song. Give it a try, Trevor, it works with your favourite Scotch, too. But be sure the lights are dimmed! Well, to be true, It’s one of these archetypal late night albums that even deliver their full full emotional impact in full daylight! There are ghosts in these tracks, ghosts, undercurrents, killing verses that come with a smile.