Alt-Country is King This Week, Featuring The Sadies and Dawes
The Sadies say goodbye to leader Dallas Good, while Dawes bring back Jonathan Wilson to produce their best album in years.
The Sadies may not be a household name, and that’s a damn shame.
For over 25 years, the Canadian alt-country maestros have delivered their hazy brand of psychedelic Americana. They are the perfect example of being one of those “your favorite artist’s favorite band.” Led by brothers Dallas and Travis Good, with bassist Sean Dean and drummer Mike Belitsky, The Sadies seemed to have released their best work with 2017’s Northern Passages. But at eleven albums in, their latest, Colder Streams tops everything that has come before.
Unfortunately, Dallas Good passed unexpectedly in February from a heart condition - what was supposed to be a celebration of their first record in five years, Colder Streams now serves as a eulogy to The Sadies’ leader in a band that accomplishes the rare feat of keeping the same four members during their career. Dallas Good’s lyrics often dealt with mortality and the uncertainty of the afterlife. Still, the new pretext makes things hit harder like in “Message to Belial,” which finds Good wondering, “Long lost, all but forgotten, My dearest departed, oh, where have you gone? I searched through the heavens and down in the underworld, The circle is broken, you’ve been away for so long, And one too many things have gone wrong.” The record is full of these lost soul moments with Good asking, “Are you still there? Tell me when you get the message” over fuzzed out guitars on “So Far for so Few.”
While the words are often heavy, the melodies gallop along, continually pushing into punk territory. The best example is “Better Yet,” where the Good brothers shred some surf lines while Belitsky goes wild on the drum kit. Colder Streams is also possibly the best The Sadies have sounded in the studio, thanks to Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire sitting behind the boards on this one. Maybe Arcade Fire should let him produce their next album instead of continuing to release insufferable shlock like “Peter Pan” and WE.
Since Dallas Good’s passing, I’ve had many moments of thankfulness that I had the opportunity to see The Sadies while they were touring Northern Passages. The release of Colder Streams only makes me more grateful. These guys deserve a lot more press than they ever received, and Dallas Good went out with a beautiful bang in the form of Colder Streams.
Colder Streams is available now on Yep Roc Records.
If we’re talking veteran alt-country acts this week, we can’t skip the spectacular return of Los Angeles’s Dawes, whose new record Misadventures Of Doomscroller is their best work in a few albums. Longtime Dawes collaborator and Check This Out! favorite Jonathan Wilson produces the album, continuing his hot streak as he has already worked on some of this year’s top stunners with Angel Olsen and Erin Rae. If you find me often criticizing Jack Antonoff for creatively neutering artists, Wilson is the exact opposite always finding the best ways to present bands with Dawes included.
As a sign of the times, this past month has featured two ten-minute long singles involving the phrase doomscroller. While Metric’s “Doomscroller” isn’t the best use of the time, Dawes knocks it out of the park with the opening track, “Someone Else’s Café / Doomscroller.” Dawes are at their best when kicking out the jams, and Wilson encourages this creativity with incredible results. It reminds me of last year’s excellent effort from My Morning Jacket, in which a band becomes reacquainted with letting things stretch out and are all the better for it. At seven tracks and a running time of 46 minutes, Misadventures Of Doomscroller breezes by quicker than expected.
Album highlight “Ghost In The Machine” clearly recalls the Allman Brothers Band classic “Revival” with its crunchy Southern-fried riffs, and that may be in part thanks to Duane Betts (son of Dickey Betts) time spent as a touring member in Dawes. To take in this album on a single song basis is a crime, though, as Misadventures Of Doomscroller is a prime example of why the album format is still so vital.
Misadventures Of Doomscroller is available now on Rounder Records.
Like these records? Here are some more reviews for related favorites!
Kurt Vile - (watch my moves)
Angel Olsen - Big Time
Erin Rae - Lighten Up
My Morning Jacket - My Morning Jacket
Jonathan Wilson - Dixie Blur
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When it comes to Dawes, I'm skeptical at best. I described "Good Luck With Whatever" as, well, whatever. But it sounds like they've bounced out of that rut and hitting on all cylinders. I'll give it a spin!