Nashville vets combine for second album of quietly imposing acoustic Americana.
The second album of collaboration between former journalist and current label owner Eric Brace and talented wandering guitarist Thomm Jutz, “Circle and Square” is a comforting mix of harmonies and carefully constructed acoustic tunes. The duos’ guitars are here fleshed out as required by bass, drums and piano, adding colour and sonic range where required. This is not music to challenge the listener, but to provide a tasteful and thoughtful frame for the ten songs which make up “Circle and Square”. Looking at the world around them, the two singers share leads and harmonies over stories of art, of neighbours, of memories, of lost friends. But the tone is also upbeat, finding the positive of creation amidst the destruction of all we once held sane around us.
‘Nothing Hurts’, a song written about Brace’s former collaborator Peter Cooper, is one of the strongest here. Very much out of the Guy Clark mould, Brace gently reminisces while living with his memories and mementos of his lost friend. Even in the numbness of the loss, the love of a friendship remains strong. Elsewhere the struggles of everyday life make up stories – familiar territory for Americana, but fertile ground nonetheless. Here they are often historical figures: the residents of a small town taken over by the TVA with repercussions for their community in ‘Fontana Dam’, or the remote Appalachian communities accessed by mobile library projects in ‘On The Back Of A Horse’. Otherwise figures from the art world inspire; the work of German painter Max Beckmann and Mexican painter Max Rivera both inspire songs here.
Well paced, beautifully played, perhaps the lyrics could challenge more, but a welcome new discovery; the very definition of a Sunday record, in the best sense. Worth tracking down.
