I slept in quite a bit yesterday and then I slept in a bunch more last evening – so much I slept right through an engagement. This morning I almost slept through the start of the Dolphins game. We recently got a new bed for the first time in twenty years and it makes for a much nicer (and sometimes longer) sleep. But that is a bit ridiculous.
Disc 1691 is…Rustin’ in the Rain
Artist: Tyler Childers
Year of Release: 2023
What’s up with the Cover? Tyler Childers with what I presume is a Percheron Mule. There is a light and smoke show happening behind Tyler, perhaps the headlights from a multicar accident, a wildfire or maybe an alien landing. Or maybe all three simultaneously, which I expect will take half the night for various emergency responders to sort out. Likely need fire, police and an ambulance for that one.
As for Tyler, he’s got the mule, so there’s that.
How I Came To Know It: I already knew the artist from previous releases and while I find him hit and miss, this record was getting some critical love so I decided to give it a go.
How It Stacks Up: I have two Tyler Childers albums. I like them both, but this one comes in second.
Rating: 3 stars but almost 4
You never know what you’re going to get with a Tyler Childers record. It could be straight up country, it could be a weird twist on western music or it could be some kind of weird psychedelic rock. Six albums into his career he’s managed to capture my positive attention only twice, but “Rustin’ in the Rain” is one of those times.
This time around, he’s done it with early seventies torch and twang. “Rustin’…” is a record that is heavily influenced by the work of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. It is very old school, at times almost the point of caricature. If you’re looking to find the line where a sound balances between imitation and appreciation, this record will show it to you.
The most obvious example of this on the album is “Phone Calls and Emails” where even the title is a mix of the old and new. A title like that evokes a traditional “you won’t call me back” tune, and indeed it is exactly that. In fact it had me thinking strongly of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ 1969 tune “Sin City”. It isn’t the same, but it has the same feel, the same build and flow, and undercurrent of sadness.
But what’s this, he’s also “emailing” his unresponsive lover. Brilliant and modern, although in 2023 e-mail is also very much old school. He should be having his texts ignored, but not a mention of this. Childers is cleverly showcasing an old form, with a “new” old school form of communication. No letters or telegraphs. Phone calls and e-mails calling up something that never goes out of style in a song; unrequited love.
While most of the tunes are original compositions, Childers undertakes a remake of Kris Kristofferson’s classic, “Help Me Make It Through the Night”. It is a solid rendition, but having heard the original a thousand times, I had a difficult time accepting the small liberties Childers takes with the melody. It isn’t wrong, but the end of many lines go up where they ought to go down. Still equally vulnerable and romantic, but differently so.
It’s like a guy who house sits for you and rearranges your Hummel figurines. He doesn’t break them, just rearranges them. No harm done, but who does that? Also, why do you have a bunch of Hummel figurines? But I digress…
“Rustin’ in the Rain” walks another line as well, which is just where an album is so short that ceases to be a full album and becomes an EP. At seven songs and 27 minutes, once again we find ourselves on a line. It’s a minor quibble of course, and the quality of those 27 minutes means all is forgiven.
The record’s penultimate tune “In Your Love,” which sees Childers taking off the trappings of old school. Here he fully commits to blending the old and the modern the result is very much all new, and all him. Childers does pay homage to some of the record’s earlier more traditional tunes. With the line “like a team of mules pulling hell off of its hinges” he cleverly references back to an earlier old timey tune “Percheron Mules” nestling the tune nicely into the rest of the record.
This record received a bunch of Grammy nominations, which naturally makes me want to hate it, but I couldn’t do it. It is just too damned lovely.
Best tracks: Rustin’ in the Rain, Phone Calls and Emails, In Your Love
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