Southeast Engine "From the Forest to the Sea"

Southeast Engine hail from midwest and their music hails from a deeper field.  Upon first listens the use of piano and organ indicate that this isn't your usual "Hey lets smoke/drink and pretend we are doing Basement Tapes covers".  There is also a strong religious under current to the music, but more of a seasonal approach than a holier than thou angle.  When one spends time in the midwest one has a better appreciations of time, seasons, death and life.  There seems to be a shorter amount of time to make things happen when one lives there, but the midwest has a tendency to not change either despite the constant seasonal changes.  Their are superficial changes as humans progress but the basic core roots of good and evil, and the harvest never leave you if you come from the central part of the United States or spend any amount of time there.

The album opens with a three piece suite called The Forest, which sets the tone for the album.  Plaintitive vocals tell tales of the bible, and the people who react to them.  The only part of the first side that doesn't do much (personally) is the last song "Black Gold", lyrically it is great but it falls into a rousing indie rock approach that harkens to the Twin Tone era.  It isn't a bad song but seems like an earlier song in that they wrote.  There is a gentle pain that guides this album that gives it the sensation of being there when you need it.  This isn't Saturday night music but is definitely Sunday morning "skipping church" music and I look forward to their growth.

Beware- Bonnie Prince Billy

I have had a love/hate relationship for years with Will Oldham.  Part of me has never liked the rustic mumblings of his early work as Palace, but part of me kept trying to figure out what he was saying.  This new album under his current working project of Bonnie Prince Billy has been labeled a country rock/outlaw country album and I think that is more misleading.  If you wanted to hang a label on this I would say it  has more of a Bakersfield sound than anything else.  Will has lined some of Chicago's finest jazz musicians to create a musically challenging backdrop to his beat poet/country hybrid.   The lyrics volley back and forth between traditional country fare and his odd ball philosophical entrapments that make his best work so captivating.

I am not quite sure what the next step in Bonnie Prince Billy's journey is but I am more than willing to follow.