Chris Eckman recently resurfaced with the song “Then There’s the Rain” on Seattle label
Drums & Wires Recordings’ thoughtfully curated first compilation
Songs Collected. It was the sumptuous heart of the already generous sampler, feeling both more holy and grittier than anything it accompanied.
As Trouser Press once described his work with his most well-known band
The Walkabouts, it showcased his
“darkly layered sound … mining a rich shadowy strain of Americana.” I thought “Then There’s the Rain” was going to be one of my very favorite singles of the year, to put into playlists as a survivor’s romantic reminder of the existential valley we barely escaped. And that would be that.
4 Ft. Ramona (he’s also been in
The Buckets,
Acme Band, and
Lava), for something drastically more hushed. Brisbois’s bio compares his music to Wilco and R.E.M., and you can indeed detect traces of Jeff Tweedy in his bucolic, reassuring drawl, while the mandolin-flecked “A Better Animal” and gentle, twangy “Take Me to the Sun” evoke R.E.M.’s “The Wrong Child” and “E-Bow the Letter,” respectively. But you’ll also hear Neil Halstead and Grant McLennan on the Low/East River Pipe-conjuring beauties “Not Her” and “I Feel Alright.” Whether he’s reimagining one of