The Delines’ bass player watches his fifth solo album fledge and take flight.
Freddy Trujillo is, of course, the bassist for Richmond Fontaine and The Delines, but he has his own solo career that sees this, his fifth album, Ave Trujillo, recently released on El Cortez Records.
In addition to being an excellent bass player, Trujillo is also an avid birder, even hosting a web series, ‘On the List with Freddy Trujillo’, to encourage other musicians to discover the joys of such a relaxing and contemplative hobby. This album has been shaped and inspired by his love of birds and birding, and he uses his knowledge of birds and their behaviour to tell his stories of grief, displacement and environmental impact.
Trujillo’s own music couldn’t be more different to that of The Delines. Where Willy Vlautin’s music shimmers and smoulders with late-night tales played out in the shadows, Trujillo’s songs positively fizz and pop in their delivery, driven on with a wonderful infusion of Chicano influences, mixing Mexican musical traditions with rock, folk, and country to serve up a rich Americana gumbo. In keeping with that comparison, some of the music strays close to Cajun at times, and you can really hear the whole melting pot of music played along the Mexican/USA border in Trujillo’s clever songwriting.
The songs themselves are a joy to listen to. The inspired idea to use the birds he sees on his trips into his local Portland countryside adds character and personality to songs that deal with some quite raw emotions. It’s almost as if the use of these birds helps to filter some of the feelings to make them more understandable; not to lessen them, but to make them more relatable in a physical sense. Songs like Vermilion Flycatcher, inspired by a rare bird sighting at his father’s funeral, “As I was kneeling at your grave/ before they put you in the ground/ I looked straight up into the sky/ and heard him make that chirping sound. You’ve given me life, and now a lifer bird/ a Vermillion Flycatcher’s as good as any word/ from you”. A ‘lifer bird’, to a birder, is the first sighting of any bird species, and these get rarer as you become more immersed in birding and the common sightings have all been achieved. A Vermillion Flycatcher is a rare sighting, and the singer finds significance in that sighting, a clear sign from his departed father. It’s a beautiful song and perfectly illustrates the power of positive association.
This is a very positive-sounding album, despite dealing with some difficult subject matter, like Canyon Wren and its story of a missing child, or Mockingbird, with its mariachi horns and a tale of community breakdown and environmental damage. The clever thing is that the music stays upbeat, using minor keys to denote sadness rather than drop the tempo of the melody. Just as the birds themselves are always moving and keeping their songs going, so this set of songs reflects that sense of birdlife and birdsong. It is quite remarkable how Trujillo has managed to capture this musical relationship with the natural world. Inevitably, some of the songs make better birding connections than others, but this is a record full of excellent music and a style all of its own.
There are, of course, guest appearances aplenty, from bandmates past and present. Willy Vlautin, Sean Oldham, Paul Brainard, and Cory Gray all make appearances; but no amount of star power can detract from the fact that this is very much Trujillo’s album, and an excellent album at that.
Listening to this recording, you get to go birding with Freddy Trujillo, and you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your own home.
