Description
Blood Oaths Of The New Blues is the Sunday morning wake and bake record to last years critically acclaimed Briarwood LPs Saturday night revelry. With his once-every-five-years proper rock and roll record out of his system, James Jackson Toth AKA Wooden Wand retreated back to Alabama to record this spooky, heady follow-up, an album that demands close attention.
This is music for quiet reflection and shares a worldview more in line with noise and doom metal artists than it does summer of love casualties and beach burnouts. Every Wooden Wand album trounces expectations, and Blood Oaths Of The New Blues, thankfully, doesnt break that trend. Many of the musicians on Briarwood return here, making this the only solo Wooden Wand album to feature the same consecutive players and the first Wooden Wand solo album to be recorded in the same consecutive studio (Ol Elegante in Homewood, AL) as the previous album, somewhere along the line Wooden Wand became a BAND.
David Hickox, Janet Elizabeth Simpson, Jody Nelson, Brad Davis and Les Nuby III make up the band, and its a testament to their versatility to note that this same group who pulled off slow-burn rock epics like Motel Stationery and Stones-y, soulful jams like the cover of Jim Fords classic Big Mouth USA last time around could so artfully and effortlessly create a follow-up that does not contain a single guitar solo, snare hit, or country affectation. Harmonium, organ and disembodied vocals are the order of the day here, with back-masking and subliminal messages added to enhance the trip. (We really didnt want to spoil that last part for you, but we at Fire Records have been advised by our legal staff to offer full disclosure on such matters to avoid any litigation resulting from misadventure. Sorry, James!).
Like spiritual cousins Nicos Desertshore, Peter Hammils A Black Box, or Dino Valentes s/t solo album, Blood Oaths Of The New Blues represents a break with the past with an eye on an uncertain future, and is the boldest, most adventurous and most intensely personal album of Toths long career. The new focus on texture and sonic space does not, however, come at the expense of Toths inimitable lyrical style. For proof, see the alt couple travelogue of Outsider Blues, the menacing first-hand account of the real-life Doherty Gangs crime spree in Southern Colorado Song, or the suicidal yearnings of the protagonist seeking to drown himself in Supermoon (The Sounding Line).
Elsewhere, Toth evokes the weary spirits of state-executed men and women in Dungeon Of Irons, pays tribute to one of his musical heroes in Jhonn Balance, and even glimpses, for a moment, a sort of hope, via the sweet love song No Debts. Warring factions on each side of Wooden Wands generally eclectic fan base can finally call a cease fire this is the first Wooden Wand album that should equally satisfy both the fans of Toths acerbic rambler narratives as well as older fans who miss losing themselves in the fried, psychedelic atmospheres of albums like Buck Dharma and Harem Of the Sundrum & The Witness Figg.
The album also features the best vocal performances of Toths career. Toth has said that he set out to make an album like the kind he would listen to on headphones when he was 14 and discovering hallucinogens. I still have trouble listening to King Diamonds Abigail LP, he says. When was the last time an album spooked you?
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