It got colder. Plaid blankets are in short supply, sunlight looks like a mockery, if present at all, and inside the body you constantly want to pour hot tea, cold whiskey or warm milk. To prevent melancholy and relieve endless fatigue (we are all tired, no less than Grandfather Yeltsin), there is a proven and quite modern medicine for a curly-haired rural pharmacist. We are talking about the album by country artist Josh Meloy “Oklahoma” released in 2020.
Before using this soulful music, let’s first figure out who made it. Josh Meloy is a modern country bard, originally from the city of Hennessy, in (what a surprise!) in the state of Oklahoma. He made his debut in 2018 with the record Washington Street. He has three full-formats in total, and today we will look at the second record, since it served as a spiritual shield from despondency, sadness and longing.
In general, Josh Meloy belongs to the characteristic Oklahoma country subgenre Red Dirt, not to be confused with the band of the same name. I haven’t had time to figure out all the nuances yet, but in short, this is country music for good boys. The style originated, as is usual with simply constructed acoustic music, in small drinking establishments. But these were the bars around the University of Oklahoma in Stillwater, and the founding father of this local style is the late Bob Childers.
Like many local styles, Krasnozem is very eclectic. There are a lot of blues and rock moments here, but without the predominance of the latter. It’s kind of like the same California White Buffalo, only even more gentle and friendly. That is, if we often and not unreasonably compare individual country legends with a chanson, and these Oklahomans are closer to the bards of the Grushinsky festival, only fashionable and youth. No crime, maximum warmth, and no sweaters.
But back to Josh. His work on Krasnozemsky is eclectic. The repertoire flirts with the mainstream rock of the eighties in Washington Street, blues-rock, even slightly petrified Karma, the western bike Already Dead, rich in narrative elements, in which I can’t stop hearing the Metallica band, as well as the hit Porch Light accompanied by cajon and harmonica.
Today’s record is designed in a much more ascetic manner: the backing band plays at a minimum or not at all, being replaced by duplicated guitars and reverberation – musical analogues of smoke and mirrors.
There is a lot of cool post-apocalyptic atmosphere in this music, like in the feature film “The Road” based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, the video game “Days Gone” or the novel “The Mist” by Stephen King. It is a novel, not a film adaptation, because the main emotion on the record is that life is a lonely journey, an endless search for a way home through an impenetrable white fog.
However, I’m getting ahead of myself. After all, I usually write such things at the end of a publication, and we have not yet started a detailed biased listening. Let’s get started!
Noise, starting with a vinyl crackle sample, smoothly flows into a waltzing dirge for a broken heart. The interweaving of many guitar parts in a cloud of echoes, restrained but confident drums — all this honed splendor makes a song with such a hackneyed theme something fantastic.
Relive is filled with bright sunny nostalgia for a bygone youth. The theme, touching the soul of everyone, is designed much more Spartan: there is only one additional guitar. And by the way, I lied about the good boys, because the lyrical hero of this song was stealing beer from the store when he was a kid. The horror!
Lightning does not stand out for its instrumental diversity either. This song hurts in a different way. Instead of the classic narrative about horse racing on a rake, we get a story of the fading of former love. As a rule, such stories are considered from the “before and after” points of view. But what if we look at the moment when everything is slowly falling apart, slowly dying?
Come on, stop this snot! We have an important meeting here. There is no mention of a crossroads in the song Met the Devil in Oklahoma, but rest assured, this is the devil: stylishly dressed up, Crafty, inviting you to ride with him from here to eternity. Also, by the way, it will pass for a character in one of the video games described by us, about endless running from oneself.
And why are songs about devils so powerful? Mick Jagger and Mikhail Bulgakov knew the answer, but they didn’t really bother to explain. The instrumental of this composition is most associated with the red Oklahoma dirt. Clay or blood, it doesn’t matter.
Compared to the previous song, Oklahoma Blues is much less intricate. It’s a tear-squeezing medium again, missing stars from the sky, but perhaps igniting a star inside. Cozy, to put it simply.
With this comfort, the previous composition fueled interest in the real hit. Lost and Never Found is like a premonition of an endlessly cold winter, an otherworldly cowboy song from those same ghost riders in the sky. Are we strong enough not to freeze? There’s something about the last round in the revolver’s drum and the endless hordes of cannibals, but in fact it’s all this December blues.
After such an extravaganza of feelings, Mine Too looks like an easy reason to relax, just a slow romantic song with longing for lost love.
The record ends with song 23, where the numbers indicate the age at which any choice turns out to be correct. Why be young if you don’t make mistakes?
So, the record has come to an end and I hope you are at home, warm and cozy. Less mystical than Digger Barnes, less aggressive than White Buffalo, Josh Meloy maintains the perfect balance between personal depth and unobtrusiveness and is deservedly considered a rising country music star. We will return to Joshua’s work in the near future. Now is the time for strength and prepares for the arrival of cold times. It won’t be easy, but we will survive until spring for sure.
