Salt As Wolves Album Cover
Last Friday was one of the best album release days of all time. This week I’ve been lucky enough to get to listen to Josh Ritter, The Oh Hellos, and now alt-country singer/songwriter Jeffrey Foucault’s new record Salt As Wolves.
It’s funny that alt-country has the word alternative in its title given that often times, it sounds more reminiscent of classic country music than most of the pop country songs you hear on the radio today. In a musical landscape that often injects mediocrity with notoriety, its nice to see artists like Foucault sticking to the roots of American music in the right ways.
Foucault’s music is definitely different than a lot of the music you’ll see me write about as country is not really my scene. But there was something instantly appealing about the gravely tone to Foucault’s vocals that drew me in. As a pretty fanatical folk fan hearing an electric guitar throughout an album was almost a foreign experience to me at this point (that’s a joke), but the style of playing was exactly what one when come to expect when turning on an alt-country album. Often up tempo, with a deep southern feel, and just a hint of the blues, though sometimes that hint was pretty god damn strong.
There is a striking honesty to this record, Foucault’s music is genuine and unapologetic. Songs like “Blues For Jessie Mae” is undeniably powerful. It uses an electric slide guitar, stripped bare and dark responding to the vocals describing the process of getting to heaven. The sound of this record is Southern to its very bones, it fits perfectly into the genre of true American music.
This record may not have as diverse a sound as some other recent releases but the music on it is of such a high quality that diversity doesn’t feel important. What it achieves more than anything is a mastery of the main sound that you hear throughout the album. Americana is a large umbrella and sometimes has vague borders and definitions, Salt As Wolves is one of those records that makes it easy to know Americana when you see it. Thematically, the album falls right in line with the sound, touching on religion, family, and observations on the society Foucault finds himself a part of. In “Jesus Will Fix It For You” we hear a sort of strange almost cynical twist on a spiritual, while the title suggests a faith that religion will save you, the tone of the song is dark, bending the message into something entirely different.
For fans of American roots music, Salt As Wolves should be high up on your list of albums to grab. The group found a genuine alt-country sound with strong notes of the blues. You can buy the record here and for a little preview, here is “Paradise” from the new album played live.
-Ryan Schmitz
