James Jackson Toth
(Rykodisc)
James Jackson Toth’s solo debut is the kind of roots-y release you’d associate with wizened veterans of the club and bar circuits, guys who’ve seen some shit along the way and absorbed enough ‘70s Stones and Big Star into their DNA so that you can’t tell where their dissolution ends and the redemptive narratives begin. A fair distance from the lo-fi experimental psych-folk of Toth’s Wooden Wand, in other words.
Serious ringers like Nels Cline (Wilco), John Dietrich (Deerhoof) and Andy Cabic (Vetiver) make for polished (but not slick) blues- and country-based accompaniment, and wife/Wooden Wand co-conspirator Jexie Toth’s harmonies provides some light for dark tales where “cocaine and bourbon/pinball and pool” (“Look In On Me”) serve as both inspiration and temptation. A couple of glam-y cuts may technically fit the era Toth invokes, but set in relief with the more deliberate bar-stool melodies they break the spell rather than conjure it. Otherwise, Toth’s Faustian bargain sounds like a soul well-spent.
Standout Tracks: “Doreen,” “Midnight Watchman” JOHN SCHACHT
