music Kenny Roby The Reservoir (Royal Potato Family Records) KennyRoby.net
Tickle-your-brain lyrics and stick-in-your-craw melodies whirl you down the rapids and float you gently over the rocks as you delve into The Reservoir. The pools are deep, feigning a stillness that hides churning undercurrents of a bruised soul and cascading ripples of a broken heart. The music belies the conflicting sentiments of serenity and precariousness as you contemplate a wade in the shallows or diving in headfirst. Kenny Roby’s baritone guides us through these alternate realities, a soothing presence in the lyrical intensity. The soundscape moves from solo guitar, picking at dirty tempos, to the gorgeous alt-west comforts of nylon-stringed heat and mandolin sunsets. Sometimes more country than folk, other times more Western than Americana. Whether it is because of the brutal backstories of addiction/recovery, divorce, suicide, or just amorphous societal uncertainty, the songs ring with emotion. It is a passionate whirlpool, but one that is memorable, catchy, and often upbeat. Stellar players, including Jeff Hill, Tony Leone, John Lee Shannon, and Jesse Aycock throw down vintage pedigree tones, successfully egoless in service of the song. Produced by Dave Schools of Widespread Panic, the album was recorded in Woodstock, where Roby has since moved from North Carolina. The Reservoir is a down-to-earth encapsulation of the hard-won sensibilities of a thinking man’s questioning and ultimate acceptance of the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful day. At his best, Roby is one of those writers whose songs and lyrics make you wish you had thought of them first: “New strings on an old guitar.” —Jason Broome
Jeff Cosgrove/John Medeski/Jeff Lederer History Gets Ahead of the Story
Geezer Groovy
Ken Fox & Knock Yourself Out Ken Fox & Knock Yourself Out
(Grizzley Music) Jeffcosgrovemusic.com
(Heavy Psych Sounds Records) Heavypsychsounds.com
(Rum Bar Records) Rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com
While bassist and bandleader William Parker has been an inspiration for multiple generations of forwardthinking jazz musicians, good luck finding his tunes in anyone’s book but his own. Past Parker associate and drummer Jeff Cosgrove, alongside Woodstock-area organist John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood) and wind player Jeff Lederer, at long last give Parker’s singular gifts as a composer the rousing recognition they deserve. The trio draws ample scoops from the gutbucket on the opener, “O’Neal’s Porch,” fracturing into pointillistic beads of texture and leaving Lederer’s altissimo howling like a hot wind in the distance. Medeski also sets his drawbars for higher vibrations and joins Lederer’s flute in a chirping dialog of startling synchronicity to open the impellent free bop of “Little Bird.” Cosgrove deftly supports throughout, never overplaying. The probing, noir-ish “Harlem” closes the set and brings specificity to the mystery, much as the trio does for William Parker’s considerable songbook. —James Keepnews
While the very cool, blacklight-ready, ’70s-esque, lysergic album art from Ryan Williams might imply Scooby Doo territory, the latest full length from Kingston’s acclaimed stoner rock torch bearers Geezer is very multilayered. The songs breathe a lot more, the band sounds more at ease than ever, and the synergy between the trio, engineer Matthew Cullen, and the studio comes across in every track. “Atlas Electra” is one of the brightest constellations in the Geezer pantheon of godly tunes yet, a laid-back, melodic slow burn that eases over you like a billowing cloud. “Slide Mountain” is a near-perfect, jammed-out mostly instrumental meditation that somehow evokes a weird, multidimensional handshake between Clutch and Explosions in the Sky. “Dead Soul Scroll” hypnotizes whales with far out, spacious sounds while the band achieves near-ZZ Top levels of boogie glory and future nostalgia on the commanding title track. —Morgan Y. Evans
Way back in early March, when people could still safely gather in a sweaty rock ’n’ roll club, Ken Fox & Knock Yourself Out lit a musical fire at Quinn’s in their hometown of Beacon. Longtime Fleshtones bassist Fox and powerhouse combo Knock Yourself Out were celebrating the release of this dynamo of an EP. With his fiery, quavering delivery, Fox makes a convincing front man. It also doesn’t hurt to have the explosive and versatile KYO as the musical engine room, along with a host of notable Hudson Valley players adding horns, piano, and violin. Fleshtones fans will recognize the gloriously buzzy, Fox-penned “Let’s Go!” and “One Step Less” from 1995’s Laboratory of Sound. The psych-punk ramalama of the Pink Fairies’ “Do It” is a highlight, as is the power-pop-meets-honky-tonk of “Love is in the Grave.” —Jeremy Schwartz
54 MUSIC CHRONOGRAM 11/20
