A month ago I received a promotional e-mail touting the imminent release of a solo record by US Christmas’ Nate Hall. You remember Nate, right guys? He was nice enough to sit down for an interview with me and I acted like a dick, and only asked him questions pertaining to drug usage. Well, as one of the world’s biggest US Christmas fans, you can imagine my joy when I first caught wind of his upcoming solo album, which is entitled A Great River. Later that day, when the first MP3 arrived in my inbox, I was floored.
The song, “Kathleen,” happens to be one of my favorite Townes Van Zandt compositions. For those of you keeping track at home, the rest of my top five would be “Rake,” “Waiting Around To Die,” “If I Needed You” and “Flyin’ Shoes”. Hall’s rendition is a awash in psychedelic swirls, but the strength of his heavily-reverbed voice juxtaposed to the stark guitar arrangement recalls the original tune. Townes was a brilliant guitarist, but the strength of a song like “Kathleen” is (for me at least) the restraint he attempts to apply to his typically achey drawl. Hall captures and replicates it well.
Compared to the rest of the US Christmas oeuvre, the arrangements on A Great River allow Hall’s voice to shine throughout the record. It is also a mostly-acoustic affair. A searing guitar lead might stir a transition or color an otherwise repetitive chord progression. The fuzzed/distorted solos do not detract from Hall’s songwriting. The most recent US Christmas albums allowed for glimpses at the man’s softer side, but you will not find anything quite like “Night Theme” on Run Thick Through The Night or Eat The Low Dogs. I haven’t listened to in a while, but I’m pretty sure neither of those records offer as much mandolin as does a single on A Great River.
If I had to pick, I’d say “Chains” is the most singer-songwriter friendly cut on this record. Hell, it even sounds a bit like the aforementioned Townes Van Zandt tune, “Flyin’ Shoes”. By contrast, then, the most rocking tune on A Great River is “Raw Chords,” which begs for a tom-heavy drum beat during the whole of its five-plus minutes. The big shocker is “When The Stars Begin To Fall.” The album’s penultimate song. The old hymn (which usually goes by “My Lord What A Morning”) is performed a cappella, with the sound of distant trains growing steadily closer. I’m sorry, that just takes balls. The guy who pleaded in his guttural scream, “Let’s drink bottles of gasoline” over the heaviest of heavy psychedelic blues riffs recorded himself singing a spiritual hymn with no musical accompaniment!? So awesome.
The title track concludes A Great River. And yet, here, after nine compositions, Hall suddenly seems self-conscious. His voice is almost inaudible, buried beneath guitars and organ. It’s a shame, too, because for ninety-percent of the album Hall is confident, and his voice strong. When you consider the somewhat-formulaic nature of US Christmas’ early body of work (unrelenting high volume psychedelic doom blues), the melodies on Hall’s first solo record are as refreshing to hear are they are catchy, and really good! Hopefully A Great River won’t be a one-off; it sounds like the start of a successful solo recording career. Here’s hoping Hall follows this up with another solid collection of songs.
A Great River will be released in Europe on May 7th and in North America on May 8th by Neurot Recordings.
Nate Hall – Chains [MP3]
