Big Thief goes deep with Dragon, Khruangbin & Leon Bridges return with Texas Moon

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You/Big Thief

Big Thief's Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You hit me like a bomb in the middle of one Monday morning's new releases listening. It grabbed my attention immediately and it continued track after track, as I waited for the one that would not connect, but it never came. It never came because I fell in love with the idea that--I'm asking the court for some leeway here, so bear with me--this record occupies a parallel universe in my mind where The Velvet Underground record their own version of The Basement Tapes, or where The Band does murder ballads with squalling guitar feedback. Or maybe just a place where the various layers of American music history go slipping in and out of a common time stream, interacting and bumping up against each other like subway junkies at a Christmas barn dance. 

As I write I contemplate "No Reason," a song that arrives after a dozen previous tracks to offer a bittersweet flash of Alex Chilton hip pop and incorporates a flute solo. It is beautiful, its open American-ness reminds me of the wide open skies of Pat Metheney Group's American Garage with a sweet edge. And yet the following track, "Wake Me Up To Drive" is no less haunting. Despite its use of a drum machine behind acoustic guitar and accordion, it is no less personal or intimate. The reason, of course, is songwriter and lead singer Adrianne Lenker, whose work balances folk, rock, country, and indie rock with a high level of honesty, humor, and vulnerability. 

"I already died/I'm singing from the other side" sings Lenker on "Love Love Love" while Buck Meek wrings some psychedelic yet bluesy riffs from his guitar, and that doesn't seem like hyperbole on a record that can only properly be said to be about 'everything' or perhaps, 'life.' I've seen Dragon compared to big, sprawling statements by other artists, like The White Album or London Calling, or those aforementioned Basement Tapes. Those comparisons are understandable, but for my money this record is perhaps more closely collated with Joni Mitchell's Hejira. It's about one woman's journey through an American landscape: the record was recorded at studios in Topanga Canyon, Upstate New York, Colorado, and Arizona. It's not that you can identify what was recorded where so much as the knowledge that being in a specific location carries with it particular associations, history, and vibes and that the way a musician performs or sings is influenced, or by all of these elements. 

At times, when she's singing harmonies with guest Matt Davidson of Twain, there is a definite shade of Emmylou Harris to her voice, or more correctly in the way she mixes her voice with Davidson's. Other times there are glints of Leonard Cohen, or Neil Young, or Bob Dylan. The thing to notice here is that Lenker's songwriting is up there with the greats. On Dragon she's loosening up and letting it fly, and the result is glorious. 

It takes real commitment to and belief in your material to release a double album in the digital age. Dragon treats us to twenty tracks spilled out over an hour and twenty minutes. The last album that captivated me from top to bottom and was arguably a double album was probably Exile In Guyville, clocking in at just under an hour for 18 tracks. But my energy and enthusiasm for what was coming next never flagged, and I was never disappointed. The variety of music performed by this four piece ensemble, with the occasional guest, is phenomenal, ranging from whacked out Appalachian stomp to traditional country/bluegrass to indie sonic experimentation. 

Texas Sun & Texas Moon/Khruangbin & Leon Bridges

What makes dubby Texas psychedelic Thai/surf rock band Khruangbin and so-called retro soulster Leon Bridges such perfect partners when it comes to crafting music together that is neither psychedelic rock nor soul but some groovy cauldron brew that illuminates the music of both contributors while it gives listeners a whole new perspective to explore? Is it just the Lemon Tag talking or do both of these acts call to me, beckoning  a thorough investigation of their working parts so that I can properly enjoy the gumbo of Khruangbin and Leon Bridges' Texas Sun and newly released Texas Moon EPs?

Both acts started up under the blazing Texas sun releasing debut records in 2015. Why 2015? Don't know, but interestingly the year was some kind of tipping point in American culture and the world in general. Khruangbin record their first album, The Universe Smiles Upon You, in their rehearsal barn in Burton, Texas, influenced by Thai cassettes from the 60s and 70s as well as East Asian pop compilations and surf rock. Leon Bridges cuts his first record, Coming Home, for Columbia Records, in the image of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, but with the added attraction of recording new material that matches those icons in providing raw material for an outstanding vocalist. 

Both artists reconvene in 2018: Khruangbin with Con Todo El Mundo, inspired by funk and soul from the Middle East, particularly Iran. Bridges records Good Thing, on which he still retains a 'retro' tag but significantly expands the influences he shows, sometimes reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield, at others funky '80s dance music. Once again, he shows us who his influences are without blatantly imitating them, and midway through listening to this album I realized that it is because Leon Bridges can do it all that he can be easily taken for granted, the same way an artist like Lenny Kravitz has been taken for granted as a 'retro' artist when the only thing truly 'retro' about him is his commitment to creating quality music. 

In 2019 Khruangbin and Bridges got together to record in what seems like an almost fated situation. Khruangbin had been working on their album Mordechai, which would be released in 2020, and they had been  working with more vocals, using all three members of the band to create some pieces that were more like songs sometimes,  and more structured than their typical dubby jams. In addition, there is an undercurrent of soul to their music, which Bridges compliments and highlights. With Khruangbin as his backing band, it becomes crystal clear that Bridges was never a 'retro' singer, he is in fact the embodiment of real soul music deeply ingrained in a modern sound.

That first EP was entitled Texas Sun, and it was an eye-opener for listeners of both artists. Hearing their collaborations for the first time, as I am right now, is like hearing a release from a long lost band that makes me wonder 'where has this record been hiding for my entire adult life?' Robert Baird, commenting at Qobuzz, says "this is a low key but promising collaboration that begs the question, why just an EP?' Why indeed, as the musicians themselves must have realized, reconvening in 2022 for the release of Texas Moon, a counterpoint of sorts to the first recording. 

First, though, came the release of Bridges' third album, Gold-Diggers Sound, an album where he is not doing any kind of retro bag at all. Bridges has found a way to synthesize his classic soul voice and bring his influences to the smooth world of modern soul and R&B. He's keeping pretty fast company on the opening track, 'Born Again,' which sounds as much like a mission statement as anything else, with Robert Glasper playing and producing a track that sounds as fresh as today's creme brulee. And sometimes his Texas comes out, gotta be, and it's more clear after hearing Bridges with Khruangbin.

So, coming back around to the newly released Texas Moon, what these musicians have in common is an interest in sounds from other places and other eras that they connect with and try to share with others. They are both artists whose creation is bound up with a certain act of curation. Take the opening track, "Doris" with its cinematic feel and its vocal story line that is based on Bridges' father's emotions at the death of his mother--it's got that five AM harsh winter city light, that bright light in which things are heartbreaking, things can't be fixed...but our reaction to things can be controlled. We get to hear Bridges' vocal control, the things that he learned about singing by studying Otis and Sam and Marvin and Curtis and now applies to his own singing in a unique setting.

Texas Moon is all midnight rides and pre-dawn truth bombs, like the sounds from a car radio blasting some interplanetary sounds from so far away...is it that we never heard this before or that we have always heard it? I used to wonder when I was a kid if you could hear '50s music if you turned on the radio of a vintage car. Not really wonder, knowing somewhere in the back of my mind that it wasn't true, but believing that maybe it could happen because, you know, the radio is magic and turn up your radio and let me hear the song and also when you get me on your wavelength, and I've got the AM/RADIO ON! 

I guarantee you that if you combine the Texas Sun and Texas Moon EPs into one album, sequenced however you like, you will have one hell of album, and you won't even have to buy a $200 player in order to hear it. In fact, you can download both EPs and  everything by Khruangbin at Bandcamp.