No, this is not a song cycle about the Nixon White House. That’s the traditional, elusive Long John/Lost John “from Bowling Green,” bearing a last name in this version (but no long harmonica solo).
The “long gone/lone gone/lost John” verbal incantation of that very old song’s magic is also representative of this record’s essence. This is the second straight disc by Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch and Fats Kaplin traversing that “words as sounds/sounds as sense” territory. Songs alternatively old or just-written do the job, connecting the dots between the blues, the heart-song and minstrel tones of the pre-blues era, bits of country, and even chunks of contemporary hip-hop.
Kane in particular keeps coming up with singularly catchy, simple, funky new tunes, with some strong banjo to match. The disc’s tone is set in his opening shot, “Monkey Jump”, which observes the things lying around some room not so different from yours or mine, marks them as personal effects, and suggests that we just “let it all go.” (Dead reckoning, indeed!)
Inventories of the fleeting and phrases to play with are surveyed all through these songs. Welch and Kane trade off single-breath images in one such number, “Postcard From Mexico” (“Love comes; love goes”), as if to nod in agreement as co-conspirators.
Inevitably, the songs, with all their gusto, are about time slipping away — about aging, letting go and eventual death. That process is evoked, even saluted, with rhythmic nods plus fine picking on guitar, banjo and fiddle. The songs culminate in an oldie that’s always been, among other things, exactly on point: Willie Dixon and Little Walter’s “Mellow Down Easy”, which “jump-jumps here; jump-jumps there” and reminds us to “mellow down easy when you really want to blow your top.”
With the joyous energy here, plus their acceptance of the inevitable, these three artists take the advice they’re passing along, able to blow their collective tops for all the mellowing. And it’s a pleasure.
