Seattle band finds its sound with a marvellous debut.
This is an excellent album. Cosmic americana, folk with a hint of country, but forget the labels, they don’t mean anything, sit back and enjoy. This is a collection to savour. Former members of Zebra Hunt have got together in Seattle to form Fallen Oaks, and we should rejoice that they did. Lead vocalist and guitarist Robert Mercer has written a fine assembly of songs and is ably backed by Erik Bennett on bass, Mitch Leffler on drums, Zack Erb on fiddle, and the wonderful pedal steel player Paul Hutzler. Will this record change your life? Maybe not, but it should, and at the very least, will add something special to the days you play it. Roadside Prayers and Stucco House are a must, along with the plaintive guitar on Motel. One of the best run of songs on an album, you will hear all year.
Roadside Prayers is a three-minute, stunning alternative country ballad lamenting the love and loss of a friend. The guitar and mournfully aching violin work perfectly. The change of pace at the end is surprising and mesmerising. A contender for song of the year once those December lists come round. This is followed by the equally spellbinding Stucco House, which could be described as a murder ballad of sorts. Leffler’s drum brush strokes paint the backdrop for what follows. A story of teenage murder between friends with the achingly sad but beautiful lines “Sometimes I’d still ride by his place /It’s nobody’s home, but I still see his face / And my other friend, well, he’s gone too / He never ended up coming back to school“. A town full of memories and ghosts. Motel takes the tempo down further, but not the intensity of the words. Hutzler’s steel guitar takes over from the words to perfectly form a feeling of loneliness and a motel room.
Somebody Else’s Dream picks up the pace for a romp through the country aboard a freight train, a special locomotive which can take you where you want or need to go. “Take me back to a better time / Take me where the stars still shine / I want to live in my own dreams / I want to live somewhere I can still breathe”. A Few Acres completes the Fallen Oaks world with a simple request for modest living. It’s a beautiful ending to the set.
It is said that Fallen Oaks playing live is where the magic happens, with band members swapping roles to create something immediate and new each time. Recorded at Unknown Studio in Anacortes, WA, live onto analogue tape by Nich Wilbur, they have captured this live essence. Fallen Oaks can pull a surprise out of anything they try. They sound like old songs, but don’t always follow the structure or expected pattern. It keeps things interesting throughout, lyrically and musically stunning. We look forward to more from them in the future.
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