Mystic Twangers 2024
Cosmic country rock sculpted to measure temporal shifts of human emotions.
Can vast expanses and open spaces be conducive to a sense of urgency as opposed to pensiveness? According to A.G. Twanger, yes; yet the answer which the New York master of Americana gives to such a question is better be perceived on many an existential plane – or plain, if you like. The fifth album of his little ensemble may assess, and access, various aspects of escapism, but these pieces are as down-to-earth as it gets for a reality-based cycle of songs that ride the carpe diem idiom without burdening the listener by grafting complex ideas on alluring tunes. Instead, they shimmer while informing the platter with dreamlike impetus, and should the momentum linger at times, one will find it impossible to get stationary here.
So, despite the titular opener’s first line – “I think I’ll kick my shoes off now” – and its mostly relaxed, albeit upbeat, feel, the record’s welcoming salvo is a robust guitar roll that’s as infectious as the track’s organ-underpinned refrains and its bass-driven skank are, all of which, however fail to prepare the audience for “Last Call” whose solemn lap-steel-laced flow must allow one to imagine Major Tom’s landing in the prairies. There’s no more space oddities amidst these wide swathes of sound, yet “Never Will” offers a delicate heartbreak before the George Floyd-referencing “Time Out” bares Twang’s bluesy anger – a sonic reflection of his lyrical chokehold – and “Hallway Mirror” and “”Do You Know How It Feels” dissolve A.G.’s anguish, the result of a personal loss, in a couple of gentle, acoustically-tinctured serenades. But whereas “I Won’t Give Up” packs an optimistic punch in its crunch, and “The Water’s Rising” punctures the album’s surface with a catchy reggae groove, the hoedown waltz “Ruby Red” and the piano-and-trumpet-splattered “Two Ragged Drifters” opt for patinated sentiments.
And if the non-CD “Haybo Traveler” boasts a bluegrass grace, given a fiddle lift, it’s par for the course in this context, so put your helmets on and ride with wind.
****3/4