Artist: John Moreland
Album: High On Tulsa Heat
Bitrate: 228kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Thirty Tigers
Genre: Country
Size: 71.39 megs
PlayTime: 0h 41min 23sec total
Rip Date: 2015-05-19
Store Date: 2015-04-21
Track List:
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01. Hang Me in the Tulsa County 3:41
Stars
02. Heart's Too Heavy 4:11
03. Cleveland County Blues 3:52
04. White Flag 4:08
05. Sad Baptist Rain 3:25
06. Cherokee 4:23
07. Losing Sleep Tonight 5:12
08. American Flags in Black & White 4:36
09. You Don't Care For Me Enough to 4:14
Cry
10. High On Tulsa Heat 3:41
Release Notes:
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The lane is wide open for the would-be country revivalist. As the mainstream
product increasingly incorporates new sounds and attitudes, there will always be
audiences yearning for the sparer, "rootsier" sounds transporting them back to
the days of the Highwaymen. It's an evergreen niche, and it is forever welcoming
to new entrants.
Enter Oklahoman songwriter John Moreland. Though Moreland has been making this
sort of music since 2008ùhis last release was 2013's In the Throes, a sorrowful
and spare collection of heavy-hearted country rockersùhis background playing in
local punk and hardcore groups gives him a good feel for forcefulness. Many of
the songs on Moreland's new album High on Tulsa Heat, arguably Moreland's
prettiest if not his most most musically vivid release, capture this
feelingù"Cherokee", in particular, weaves a solemn guitar line with Moreland's
weathered vocal to devastating effect. ("I've got a taste for poison/ I'm giving
up on ever being well/ I keep mining the horizon/ Digging for lies I've yet to
tell.")
High on Tulsa Heat is filled with simple delights like "Cherokee". Songs like
opener "Hang Me in the Tulsa County Stars" and the title track push Moreland's
voice forward while accenting its weary wisdom with simple
accompanimentsùsliding guitar, pedal steel, economically appliedùand harmonies
("Heart's Too Heavy"). High on Tulsa Heat finds a nice balance between the spare
and sad ("Cleveland County Blues") and warm moods, and on balance, it's
strangely uplifting.
Moreland lacks the cynical sharpness and humor of fellow travelers like Sturgill
Simpsonùwhose Metamodern Sounds of Country Music stands as a high watermark for
this generation's wave of "alt country". Moreland's songs are simpler and open
up in more conventional ways. On High on Tulsa Heat, small details feel like
major victoriesùfor instance, the soft tambourine and shaker flourishes on album
highlight "White Flag". Moreland's music is sad, to be sureùbut even as he's
singing about being useless and an addict ("You need something stronger/ A drug
to kill the hunger/ And ease the awful pain of living here" from "You Don't Care
for Me Enough to Cry"), you can hear a palpable hope for redemption coursing
through. There is plenty of well-worn sentiment and saltiness in his music, but
there is also a relatable humanity that makes High on Tulsa Heat worth going
back to. Though many of the songs convey images of earthiness and of dirt,
there's a beauty that helps the collection soar above the ground.