Humour me for a minute. Every so often, a piece of work like this comes along (it’s not just an album it’s a project, maybe even a concept) where every aspect and detail is absolutely perfect. The humouring bit concerns my particular slant on the project. MusicRiot’s gig team, The Riot Squad, are big fans of Dean Owens, the UK representative on the project, so forgive me if I spend a bit of time on Dean’s contribution. It’s fair to say that Dean’s solo material has a strong sense of location; he writes about the area and the people he knows, just like Ian Rankin and Irvine Welsh in their novels and short stories. It’s also fair to say that he’s always been willing to push the boundaries in his collaborations, spreading out into traditional Scottish folk ballads as Redwood Mountain with Amy Geddes, rockier material with his occasional band Deer Lake and his consistently excellent work with Will Kimbrough (more about that later).
Buffalo Blood is something else indeed. Dean teamed up with his Nashville friends and collaborators Neilson Hubbard, Audrey Spillman and Joshua Britt, along with sound engineer and photographer Jim DeMain to spend two weeks deep in the New Mexico desert feeling the forces of previous lives played out there while writing and recording fifteen songs that tap into the echoes of centuries of betrayal, exploitation and alienation of the Native American peoples. And it’s not just the songs; there’s video and photography as well. The incredibly ambitious aim of the project is to immerse the listener in five hundred years of Native American experience. What’s truly incredible is that they actually succeeded. “Buffalo Blood” is an album that will entrance you, engage you and enrage you; maybe it will even make you take a serious look at the history of the indigenous peoples of the American continent. That’s what can happen when creative artists follow their instincts and beliefs and just create; I can’t imagine any of the major music providers bankrolling this project, but I believe “Buffalo Blood” has a real shot at commercial success; it’s that powerful.
The songs were recorded live outdoors in the desert, the wind and animal noises contributing to the feeling of immersion in an environment that retains echoes of centuries of struggle. The quality of the songwriting is consistently high across the album as Celtic, European and Native American influences combine to create a perfect musical backdrop for a message that is still relevant (Standing Rock ring any bells?).
The album has a narrative flow; it moves from the original contact with European settlers through time to the closing lament “Vanishing World”, which is perfectly suited to Dean Owens’ plaintive voice. This album is a classic, carrying a very potent message through the medium of haunting melodies and flawless performances; get it on your wishlist.
If you needed the album to be ground-breaking in any more ways, it’s the first UK release on the Eel Pie Records label and it’s available as a vinyl gatefold double album or digitally from Friday February 15 (EPRLP001)
Breaking news – Dean Owens won UK Song of the Year at the UK Americana Awards 2019 for the title track from his 2018 “Southern Wind” collaboration with Will Kimbrough. And that’s not the only good news from the Buffalo Blood camp; Neilson Hubbard produced “Southern Wind” and also Ben Glover’s “Shorebound” (UK Album of the Year winner) and “Rifles and Rosary Beads” for Mary Gauthier, who won International Artist of the Year and is up for a Grammy this year. Not a bad haul, and that’s before “Buffalo Blood” is released.
If you need any more recommendations for Buffalo Blood, try this:
Korby Lenker is from East Nashville. To say East is a small distinction, but one that means everything to East Nashvillians. Anyway, it’s only marginally relevant because he travelled back to his native Idaho and many other places to record “Thousand Springs”, contrasting the natural settings with the modern technology he used to record contributions from a variety of artists in a variety of places. The process hints at montage or collage, but the final result sounds remarkably consistent considering the disparate nature of the components. The stories he tells, in a voice that almost cracks with emotion at times, are widely varied and have unexpected twists in the tale or the telling; not quite whimsical, but in the same ballpark.
The breadth of styles and subject matter is perfectly demonstrated by two songs that sit side by side on the album. “Last Man Standing” is by far the album’s most raucous song with a driving beat and some meaty guitar fills; it’s a tale of Sitting Bull and it was recorded on the site of his grave at Standing Rock. It’s thrown into sharper focus when it’s followed by the lighter “Book Nerd”, the story of a literary snob that comes on as a literary cousin to “Teenage Dirtbag” and demonstrates the clever, but never self-conscious, wordplay that permeates the album. There are a few twists on tired themes as well; “Late Bloomers” turns the overnight sensation idea on its head, bringing hope to all of us.
The album’s full of songs and arrangements that are clever and memorable but with little twists that are the hallmark of the truly original writer; small but evocative observations about coffee cups rolling around in the van, and the use of unusual arrangements and instruments (baritone ukulele, for example). There are some lovely harmonies throughout the album and contributions from a long list of luminaries of modern American music that help to create a very listenable and, at times, thought-provoking album. I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Twang Town anymore.
“Thousand Springs” is released on Soundly Music on March 16 2018.
