Vinyl: By Steve Bell

ALBUMS: Vinyl

BY STEVE BELL

PLAINS I WALKED WITH YOU A WAYS

ANTI-

On her fifth album Saint Cloud Alabaman indie-folk mainstay Katie Crutchfield - who releases her solo music under the moniker Waxahatchee - turned her gaze towards the country realms, the authentic-sounding results proving one of the musical highlights of 2020 as she channeled forebears such as Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch and Jason Molina. Now just two years later she’s joined forces with young Texan singer-songwriter Jess Williamson and dived even deeper into the country oeuvre with their new project Plains - adding new touchstones like Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Emmylou Harris into the sonic mix - resulting in the brilliant debut album I Walked With You A Ways. Stunning lead single ‘Problem With It’ set the template for the project, a duet where Crutchfield takes the lead but the pair’s contrasting-but-complementary voices mesh into a velvet unison for the chorus, buoyed by a strong band who show great restraint as they add soft-brushed drums, gentle keys and robust guitars. With a shared lyrical focus on love gone stray in various dusty terrains both artists contribute some gorgeous songs to the project - Williamson offering’s including the harmony-laden opener ‘Summer Sun’, stunning lament ‘Abilene’ and uplifting title track which closes proceedings, while Crutchfield also contributed the powerful ‘Hurricane’ and the perfectly dogged ‘Easy’ - and they throw in a cover of Hoyt Van Teller’s ‘Bellafatima’ for good measure. I was recently lucky enough to see Plains play their second ever gig whilst in Portland, Oregon and together these two artists have forged a wonderful union that far exceeds the sum of its considerable parts, here’s hoping that we’re treated to more of the partnership in the future because it’s one of genuine substance.

WILL SHEFF NOTHING SPECIAL

ATO Records

Texan folk-rock mainstays Okkervil River crafted compelling music for over 20 years and released nine studio albums - over time proving to comprise erudite singer-songwriter Will Sheff and whoever he was playing with at the time - so Sheff’s new debut solo album Nothing Special marks a fork in his musical journey, a chance to abandon old baggage and start afresh with a clean slate. He gathered together a cast of willing and able accomplices (including Zac Rowe from Death Cab For Cutie and Eric D Johnston of the Fruit Bats) and by all accounts pulled the album together quickly, favouring the excitement of initial creation over slaving away in the quest for perfection. Lyrically much of the album is coloured by the tragic 2020 passing of former Okkervil River drummer Travis Nelson, prompting variations on the existential theme of moving on from loss and regret - in other words, how long should you remain rooted analysing past trauma before it comes counter-productive in the bigger picture? Sheff is no stranger to mining beauty from loss and heartbreak but songs like the title track and the quietly mournful ‘In The Thick Of It’ seem more grounded in actual pain than past fare, while the doleful ‘Marathon Girl’ uses the passing of a friend’s beloved dog to give a different perspective to the theme. Elsewhere ‘Holy Man’ seeks a balance between selflessness and selfishness and quietly-affecting closer ‘Evidence’ continues the motif of letting go and striking a balance between the present and the spectres of the past and future. Emotional vulnerability has long been Sheff’s forte and he’s outdone himself on Nothing Special, a sad-but-compelling opening gambit to his solo voyage.

KING STINGRAY KING STINGRAY

Cooking Vinyl Australia

The pedigree of young NT indie rockers is immaculate: vocalist Yirrŋa Yunupiŋu and guitarist Roy Kellaway are lifelong friends having grown up together with relatives in the ranks of Indigenous rock pioneers Yothu Yindi, while guitarist Dimathaya Burarrwanga is the grandson of former Warumpi Band frontman George Rrurrambu Burarrwanga. With that in mind it’s no surprise that King Stingray’s unique blend of indie and surf rock with traditional Indigenous styles - and lyrics sung in both English and the Yolŋu Matha language - works so organically and completely avoids any notion of contrivance, the music’s inherent joie de vivre making it completely engaging both on record and in the live realm. The band’s early calling cards like ‘Hey Wanhaka’, ‘Get Me Out’ and ‘Milkumana’ are all included on their self-titled debut - which has finally enjoyed a vinyl release some months after hitting streaming platforms - but there’s so much depth on display throughout the record, with uniformly catchy tracks ‘Camp Dog’, ‘Let’s Go’ and ‘Lupa’ all getting plenty of traction on the radio when their turns arrived. Indeed King Stingray’s self-described “Yolŋu surfrock” sound - while completely unique - is so perfectly-formed and hook-laden that it feels like an aesthetic that’s been around forever (perhaps due to having foundations in a musical form that stretches back tens of thousands of years). These young guys literally have the world at their feet and you get the feeling that they’ll be introducing their homegrown culture and language to people far beyond our country’s borders in the not-too-distant future, a brilliant new addition to Australia’s musical armoury.