HEZEKIAH GOODE – TWO BILLION ACRES OF SALT
2013 – Self Released
From the very first play of this tremendous album I didn’t really know what to make of it and to a degree that still applies. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it from the start and certainly it is an album that consists of ‘classic country music’but everything about it has a slightly unusual feel that signals, to me at least, that here is a recording and an artist that has very much more depth than most. I’m still finding it almost impossible to give any definition to that depth other than to say that with repeated plays that feeling becomes more and more emphatic.
Hezekiah has a terrific pure country vocal style that is almost but not quite a croon! This edgy croon is part of what contributes to the unusual sound but it goes much deeper than that, in fact, even his songwriting, arrangements and the instrumentation has something very different, if almost indefinable. He seems to be deeply rooted within the country field but has a unique style in much the same way as a band such as Petunia and the Vipers. No one will ever sound quite like Petunia but a similar thread of idiosyncratic individuality is at work here.
Of the thirteen songs eleven are Hezekiah originals, the exceptions being Jimmy Rodgers Nobody Knows But Me and Bascom Lamar Lunsfords Good Old Mountain Dew which gives some idea of Hezekiah’s influences. I don’t know of anyone else who writes story songs quite as extraordinarily descriptive as those on this album. The album was recorded, mixed and co produced by Morgan Harris at Moja Magic Recording Studio in Boulder, Colorado. The musicians that assisted Hezekiah on this project are more than worthy of mention. Obviously there was Hezekiah himself on lead vocals and guitar with Eric Thorin, who is also a writer, producer and bass player with the Matt Flinner Trio on bass, Glenn Taylor, one of the top steel guitar players around is on pedal
steel, Keith Reed on banjo, Greg Buergler plays fiddle, on half the tracks and Matt Combs does so on the other half, Lauren Stovall of the Railsplitters adds her lovely vocals to a couple of songs, Tony Black on snare and washboard, Gabriel Mervine, trumpet and David Richey of The Ruined Nation Boys also adds his vocals to several songs. There are others but this lineup should give some idea of the quality that Hezekiah possesses, with all being artists who stick pretty much to their own musical muse rather than embracing the ‘mainstream.’
I’ve had to pick out a few songs for mention to give an idea of what is on offer on this tremendous album but they are all picked totally at random, as evidenced by the fact that I literally stuck a pin in the song list! There are slow moody ballads and mid tempo upbeat songs but some are in disguise, with several songs that sound slow and mellow actually having very deep dark stories, ensuring that the listener can never take anything for granted. A case in point being The Ballad of Enos McCracken, an extraordinary song that is performed in Hezekiah’s (almost!) croon on the incredibly sad and hugely descriptive tale of a good lawman and a murderer who gets his just desserts. The accompaniment is mainly from acoustic guitar and fiddle, leaving the vocals to carry the song, in many ways further enhancing the strange almost matter of fact atmosphere that contrasts beautifully with the lyrics. The album opener A Fence Of Colorado Stone has a lovely light melodic guitar intro allied to fiddle and banjo that all combine with Hezekiah’s croon like warm vocal giving the song a light open feel on the tale of how to keep a prize heifer fenced in! It is an unusual song with an unusual but brilliant sound that despite the melodicism and lightness of touch seems to have a slightly threatening edge that is almost impossible to define, somehow intimating there is perhaps a hidden meaning. If there isn’t it is certainly the best song I’ve ever heard about a heifer! There is a defining version of Bascom Lamar Lunsfords classic Good Old Mountain Dew, not in the
sense of an unusual treatment but just in the sheer musical quality of this interpretation. It is done as a duet with David Richey, echoing the old time brother acts of many decades ago and with the perfect instrumentation consisting of fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bass and guitar. Midnight Train To Tenochtitlan is driven by fiddle, mandolin, accordion and snare on a philosophical, highly descriptive song of learning some harsh lessons in life through a different slant on an old theme. I Need You To Walk Away is an achingly beautiful tale about a man faced with one of loves conundrums, done as a gorgeous duet with Lauren Stovall’s exquisite vocals and an instrumentation dominated equally by the stunning steel guitar and fiddle. Go Easy On The Ethanol is an excellent ‘crooned’ mid tempo piano driven song with a jazzy trumpet, on the upside of drowning your sorrows with pure alcohol. Really, despite the upbeat feel, it’s a sad story of a vietnam veteran. Finally, Roll On Down That Trail Little Buddy is a lovely, touching song about the adventures of a dad and his little boy on a day out in the west! And so the album carries on with one tremendous song leading on to the next, all driven by the perfectly selected and played instrumentation, aided and abetted by Hezekiah’s vocals and his extraordinary song writing.
This is a genuinely great album of real country music that will not so much bridge the gap between cult and mainstream status, as make this edgy album irresistible to anyone who hears even one song from it irrespective of preferences. Buy it and know that you are purchasing one of the best country albums of the year so far and I suspect a contender for the top of the year end lists of many people, if they could only hear it!
http://hezekiahgoode.com/
From the very first play of this tremendous album I didn’t really know what to make of it and to a degree that still applies. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it from the start and certainly it is an album that consists of ‘classic country music’but everything about it has a slightly unusual feel that signals, to me at least, that here is a recording and an artist that has very much more depth than most. I’m still finding it almost impossible to give any definition to that depth other than to say that with repeated plays that feeling becomes more and more emphatic.
Hezekiah has a terrific pure country vocal style that is almost but not quite a croon! This edgy croon is part of what contributes to the unusual sound but it goes much deeper than that, in fact, even his songwriting, arrangements and the instrumentation has something very different, if almost indefinable. He seems to be deeply rooted within the country field but has a unique style in much the same way as a band such as Petunia and the Vipers. No one will ever sound quite like Petunia but a similar thread of idiosyncratic individuality is at work here.
Of the thirteen songs eleven are Hezekiah originals, the exceptions being Jimmy Rodgers Nobody Knows But Me and Bascom Lamar Lunsfords Good Old Mountain Dew which gives some idea of Hezekiah’s influences. I don’t know of anyone else who writes story songs quite as extraordinarily descriptive as those on this album. The album was recorded, mixed and co produced by Morgan Harris at Moja Magic Recording Studio in Boulder, Colorado. The musicians that assisted Hezekiah on this project are more than worthy of mention. Obviously there was Hezekiah himself on lead vocals and guitar with Eric Thorin, who is also a writer, producer and bass player with the Matt Flinner Trio on bass, Glenn Taylor, one of the top steel guitar players around is on pedal
steel, Keith Reed on banjo, Greg Buergler plays fiddle, on half the tracks and Matt Combs does so on the other half, Lauren Stovall of the Railsplitters adds her lovely vocals to a couple of songs, Tony Black on snare and washboard, Gabriel Mervine, trumpet and David Richey of The Ruined Nation Boys also adds his vocals to several songs. There are others but this lineup should give some idea of the quality that Hezekiah possesses, with all being artists who stick pretty much to their own musical muse rather than embracing the ‘mainstream.’
I’ve had to pick out a few songs for mention to give an idea of what is on offer on this tremendous album but they are all picked totally at random, as evidenced by the fact that I literally stuck a pin in the song list! There are slow moody ballads and mid tempo upbeat songs but some are in disguise, with several songs that sound slow and mellow actually having very deep dark stories, ensuring that the listener can never take anything for granted. A case in point being The Ballad of Enos McCracken, an extraordinary song that is performed in Hezekiah’s (almost!) croon on the incredibly sad and hugely descriptive tale of a good lawman and a murderer who gets his just desserts. The accompaniment is mainly from acoustic guitar and fiddle, leaving the vocals to carry the song, in many ways further enhancing the strange almost matter of fact atmosphere that contrasts beautifully with the lyrics. The album opener A Fence Of Colorado Stone has a lovely light melodic guitar intro allied to fiddle and banjo that all combine with Hezekiah’s croon like warm vocal giving the song a light open feel on the tale of how to keep a prize heifer fenced in! It is an unusual song with an unusual but brilliant sound that despite the melodicism and lightness of touch seems to have a slightly threatening edge that is almost impossible to define, somehow intimating there is perhaps a hidden meaning. If there isn’t it is certainly the best song I’ve ever heard about a heifer! There is a defining version of Bascom Lamar Lunsfords classic Good Old Mountain Dew, not in the
sense of an unusual treatment but just in the sheer musical quality of this interpretation. It is done as a duet with David Richey, echoing the old time brother acts of many decades ago and with the perfect instrumentation consisting of fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bass and guitar. Midnight Train To Tenochtitlan is driven by fiddle, mandolin, accordion and snare on a philosophical, highly descriptive song of learning some harsh lessons in life through a different slant on an old theme. I Need You To Walk Away is an achingly beautiful tale about a man faced with one of loves conundrums, done as a gorgeous duet with Lauren Stovall’s exquisite vocals and an instrumentation dominated equally by the stunning steel guitar and fiddle. Go Easy On The Ethanol is an excellent ‘crooned’ mid tempo piano driven song with a jazzy trumpet, on the upside of drowning your sorrows with pure alcohol. Really, despite the upbeat feel, it’s a sad story of a vietnam veteran. Finally, Roll On Down That Trail Little Buddy is a lovely, touching song about the adventures of a dad and his little boy on a day out in the west! And so the album carries on with one tremendous song leading on to the next, all driven by the perfectly selected and played instrumentation, aided and abetted by Hezekiah’s vocals and his extraordinary song writing.
This is a genuinely great album of real country music that will not so much bridge the gap between cult and mainstream status, as make this edgy album irresistible to anyone who hears even one song from it irrespective of preferences. Buy it and know that you are purchasing one of the best country albums of the year so far and I suspect a contender for the top of the year end lists of many people, if they could only hear it!
http://hezekiahgoode.com/