The fact that what starts out feeling like a snippet from the local news ends up moving through the realms of psychology and philosophy, and eventually into a sort of relatable nihilism, makes for a great intro to this new EP from James White & The Wild Fire. It might not tell you quite what to expect musically, but it does flag up the fact that this is going to be an informed, intelligent, and wild (ha!) ride.
And then “Girl From Fort Worth” kicks in, a blend of cow-punk and country, soaked through with swirling and swooning violins and gorgeous banks of harmonies, and we’re off. “The Ballad of Jimmy Blanco” (the central character of the news bulletin and a direct translation of our glorious band leader, but I wouldn’t read too much into that) picks up sonically where the previous song left off…a driving slice of bluegrass groove, its infectiousness and momentum matching the lyrical advocacy of wanderlust and adventure.
“Lysander Hayes” is banjo-driven and hazily psychedelic, a freak-folk adventure which links the current zeitgeist’s love of Americana with the darker, more rootsy, and acid-spiked underbelly of the Summer of Love, like The Grateful Dead working as a hoedown dance band, if you can imagine such a thing.
We end with the slower, strutting, stomping, arsonistic and apocalyptic “Bonfire,” the song which lyrically joins the dots between the songs found here, the sad conclusion to the stories of lost love, wanderlust, abandonment and revenge!
If there seems to be a rush by the powers-that-be to monetize and market anything with an acoustic guitar and plaid shirt, anything with a whiff of roots as the new Americana scene, James White and his sonic gang feels too authentic, too honest, too other to be part of that forced and fraudulent scene. He might be making music an ocean away and a century too late, but this sounds like the origin story of bluegrass and country, “Bonfire,” in particular like the sort of song that the bad guys might have been singing as everything comes to a head in the film Sinners.
Saffron Walden is south of the Mason-Dixon line, right?
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