Preacher Boy’s Ghost Notes
Wielding a weathered, whiskey-soaked voice that is equal parts Tom Waits and Howlin’ Wolf yet easily recognized as Preacher Boy, I picked up on the Band’s influence on “Up the River” right away (especially since the legendary Garth Hudson had just passed away and was on my mind). Sporting a strong rhythm but laid-back vibe, “Up the River” offers up hazy memories expressed with poetic charm. “New Red Cedar Blues” is a country-blues song at heart, but with the same strong Americana roots as anything the Band ever recorded, Watkins’ mournful vocals accompanied by a riveting guitar line. The hard-fought knowledge of “Two Birds” is delivered with serpentine guitar and a Delta blues ferocity, Watkins’ desperate vocals almost drowning beneath the waves of a hypnotic groove.
The Springsteen influenced “Don’t Know What To Think Anymore” offers some of Watkins’ most inspired lyrics and fretwork, obtusely political in the way that all music is a political statement, whether it be personal or universal. You can’t separate the artist from their culture, and “Dirty Little Secret” is a blues-rock dirge that explores the cause and effect of addiction, whether it be substance abuse or the abuses of power that draws so many like a moth to a flame. The title track is a beautifully fragile story of lonely desperation, social isolation, and the compulsion to create that drives nearly every artist, delivered pitch perfect with trembling vocals and a mournful, almost Baroque soundtrack.
Land of Milk and Honey
The brilliance of “Scene of the Crime” is shrouded in oblique social commentary fueled by anger and a guitar-driven blues-rock dynamic that highlights Watkins’ fierce vocals. When lines like “the song of myself, sung by a fool and performed by a mime/tuned to a bell with a crack in the back that is still made to chime/by an old bell-ringer, long past his prime/who is lookin’ for clues at the scene of the crime” are accompanied by crying harmonica notes, you have to sit up and take notice. Ditto for “See All the People,” which grieves as passionately as “Scene of the Crime” rages; pointedly anti-violence, it also addresses the internal suffering of the killers who commit atrocities against their fellow humans, an aspect of every mass shooting too dark and inconvenient to be of concern to a society that has creates these mutants.
As close as Preacher Boy gets to a ‘traditional’ folk song, “No Rivers To Cross” is nevertheless a minimalist joy, a sort of Southern Gothic tale whose sparse instrumentation still plays loud below whip smart lyrics like “god or devil, it doesn’t matter/you praise the former and race the latter” and “down by the river, where the moonlight’s shattered diamond paints the water white/is where the drunks come to hear the monks drum/I’ll take you there where all are welcome.” Watkins claims a Tom Petty influence for “Land of Milk and Honey,” but it you couldn’t prove it by me, except for perhaps his vocal phrasing, which mildly mimics “Refugee.” The song displays a ‘60s-styled garage-rock undercurrent that skews closer to Sky Saxon, with a sorrowful vocal delivery that perfectly showcases the lyrics. Ghost Notes closes with the beautiful, lilting “Light A Candle,” written for Watkins’ wife, the considered words offered with emotion and accompanied by filigree guitarwork that touches your soul.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Ghost Notes is the most personal and lyrically revealing work in Preacher Boy’s lengthy career (I first reviewed his Devil’s Buttermilk album in 2002 for All Music Guide), a major work by an Artist who has refused to compromise his musical vision. It’s his “Americana” album, haunted by influential ghosts like Levon Helm, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Petty, and Mac Rebennack (a/k/a Dr. John) as well as a few still corporate souls like Springsteen, Dylan, John Fogerty, and Neil Young while still managing to sound uniquely original and creatively electrifying.
Watkins poured his heart and soul into the creation of Ghost Notes, and it shows in the album’s craftsmanship and integrity; it’s well worth tracking down a copy if you’re a fan of any of the aforementioned influences. Whether you opt for the CD or the 2x vinyl version of Ghost Notes, I’d recommend grabbing a copy of Watkins’ Ghost Notes: Songs and Stories as well, the book providing further insight into the unjustly obscure but nevertheless fascinating talent that is Preacher Boy. Grade: A+
Buy the album via Bandcamp: Preacher Boy’s Ghost Notes
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