Scott Cook - Tangle Of Souls (Album Review)
Ordinarily I have little time for what I call the dungaree-thumbing end of the country music spectrum. Yet I find myself irresistibly drawn to rootsy Canadian singer songwriter Scott Cook. Tangle of Souls is the seasoned troubadour’s seventh album and is accompanied by a whopping 240-page cloth-bound, hardback book. This little tome, of which I confess I have only scratched the surface, is an autobiographical work of folk-philosophy that deserves a review or three all by itself. In it, the self-confessed “full-time rambler” weaves the story of each song through the pages with honesty, self-awareness and uncommon academic flair (quotes! references! footnotes!). But, at the risk of doing Mr Cook a disservice, I am going to focus on the music.
Although the American-born nomad has recently put down his roots, amid the Cajun fiddling of ‘Put Your Good Foot in the Road’ and the yodelsome ‘Rollin’ to You’ you’ll find the usual barnstorming love letters to a life on the road. A rendition of Richard Blakeslee’s ‘Passing Through’ sits well alongside these, slathered as it is in mandolin and close, half-drunk harmonies. All well and good if those particular stringband tics are your cup of tea. For me, though, the nuggets of sweetness scattered through the rest of the album are the most rewarding. A personal favourite is ‘Let Love Have Its Way’; an unlikely protest song hanging from delicate pizzicato strings that is less a call to arms than a call to surrender. Its message, that change starts with individual human kindness, is echoed in the apolitical rallying cry against inequality that is ‘Say Can You See’: “It ain’t about right and left/It’s about right and wrong”.
Scott Cook (press photo by Steven Teeuwsen)
Elsewhere, reflections on our short time on earth are examined though the sparely dressed ‘Tulsa’ and the delicate guitar of ‘What to Keep’. Feeding into this is the sentimental and tragic ‘Just Enough Empties’, another of the record’s bittersweet gems, dressed in simple harmonies, banjo and Pete Fidler’s exquisite dobro. This tragic tale’s final glimmer of hope lends the sort of warmth of which Nanci Griffith would be proud.
That there are artists cleaving to the physical artefact in the digital age may seem quaint and fascinating but - for me at least - it is overwhelmingly heartening. As a document of our times, this absorbing musical story of travel and self-discovery really deserves to be on the school syllabus. As a project that is designed to be held in your hands, seen with your eyes and heard with your ears, Tangle of Souls is more meaningful than anything you will ever stream. It is a handbook for the soul, and one with a remarkably good soundtrack.
Review by Rich Barnard
Format CD/Book, Limited LP/Book & DL
Label Self-Released
Release Date October 9 2020
To quote John Surge, “These five songs represent a real cross-section of the music we make”. John is referencing a new EP aptly titled, ‘Maybe You Don’t Know Me’. The ‘Almost Time’ album from last year was well received, but Surge still had a host of material that wasn’t quite right for that record but worked well in his live set. A live set that had gotten John noticed on the LA country scene in the first place. Surge re-connected with highly regarded Texas producer Tommy Detamore {Doug Sahm, Jim Lauderdale, Sunny Sweeney, Jesse Daniel} and reenlisted many of the ‘Almost Time’ crew including his right-hand Haymaker guitarist Randy Volin, plus Brennen Leigh on harmony vocals, Brad Fordham (Dave Alvin/Hayes Carll) on bass, Tom Lewis (Junior Brown/Raul Malo) on drums and Floyd Domino (Asleep at the Wheel, Merle Haggard) on keyboards.