No Depression R.I.P.

Being a person who espouses principles of shalom and restorative justice much more so than vengeance and retribution, I decided to put these values to practice in this listening exercise. This match up featured the Avett Brothers, I and Love and You, and Ferraby Lionheart, The Jack of Hearts, who had in my opinion unjustly knocked out the Weakerthans in the previous round. Now don't get me wrong, I still feel the world is slightly off kilter in light of Ferraby displacing the Weakerthans, but I endeavored to give him a fair listen and resolved to do my my best to enter into a right and proper relationship with this young man.  To be clear this doesn't equate necessarily moving him through to the next round, it does mean hopefully an end to my gnashing of teeth, wailing hysterically and donning an ashen sackcloth as a sign of grieving when I hear his name mentioned in the future.

First off, and this is meant to be a great compliment to both artists, listening to both  these albums made me miss dearly my favorite music magazine of all time, the venerable but sadly out of print- No Depression. 

In fact perhaps a future contest lining up our favorite print music magazines against each could be in order? Anyhow, both these bands would have been favorites of No Depression, in fact Avett Brothers were already featured heavily in No Depression print magazine for a number of years http://archives.nodepression.com/artist/avett-brothers/


Ferraby's music definitely fits in the roots/Americana vein that No Depression championed so well. It is fair to say that this genre allows for enough musical expression that various instruments can be featured prominently within this category of music. Ferraby's instruments of choice are varied, using drums, guitars, multiple types of stringed instruments, and I think multiple types of keyboard instruments thrown in as well. Most importantly there is his voice that sounds like honey to my ears on almost every track. Perhaps almost too sweet and polished for my ears, but delightful nonetheless. The total effect is songs that have almost an orchestral pop quality to them. Although put on on an indie label, everything about this album has a refined feel to it, with very tight sound and production values. I very much liked these songs- Pocketknife, Sweet Tanzini, and Drag me Around . I found a number of other songs to be solid but not of stand quality out for me. I really dislike track 4 Arkansas and I found the last track Minuteman unremarkable, more of a filler tune for me.  In summary I would count The Jack of Hearts as a classy honkytonk album of a high order. Most importantly Mr. Lionheart and I are now in a right and proper relationship, no more gnashing of teeth or wearing of ashen sackcloth for me when I here his name or his music.

The Avett Brothers use many of the same instruments as Lionheart but the effect and tone of their music is much different for me. They do add in some banjo on some songs as well, which is a happy addition for me. Overall they have more of a hootenanny approach and less tightly constructed sound. Although I will say I and Love and You is more structured than much of their earlier material . Furthermore the vocals of Seth and Scott Avett are ragged and have a beer and cigarettes tinge rather than the honey flavor tones of Ferraby. It is uncommon for me to listen  an album and not find at least one or two songs to be filler or uninteresting, so this album proves the exception to the rule since I like along the songs on this album. Some real highlights for me are Head Full of Doubt, The Perfect Space, Kick Drum Heart and Slight Figure of Speech. Unlike the last reviewer of I and Love and You, I find this album to be an absolute gem. As such I have to cannibalize bands I like against each other in this round, just as I did in the last round. 


The Avett Brothers advance to next round.