American-born, Wales-based singer/songwriter
Jeb Loy Nichols reteams with producer and longtime friend
Adrian Sherwood on
United States of the Broken Hearted. The pair have been friends and collaborators for 40 years and they last worked together on
Nichols' excellent
Long Time Traveller. This set was birthed from a conversation about
Gram Parsons' "Cosmic American Music" concept, wherein its wide variety of genres inform one another in a uniquely American sound.
Nichols wrote nine of these 12 songs; three others are American folk standards from
Woody Guthrie ("Deportees"),
Sarah Ogan Gunning ("I Hate the Capitalist System"), and
Red Hayes &
Jack Rhodes ("Satisfied Mind").
This album reflects
Nichols' American homeland where internal conflicts are tearing the nation apart. "Monsters on the Hill" commences with dubwise horns, a bass, kick drum, and acoustic six-string; the beat walks between classic country two-step and dread reggae shuffle.
Nichols speaks to fellow Americans: "We're so small, we're so terrible and tiny, we don't learn, and I don't think we ever will .... " "Big Troubles Come in Through a Small Door" recalls
Terry Callier's early recordings as
Nichols, accompanied by
Ivan "Celloman" Hussey's skittering instrument and bass, frames piano, guitar, muted trumpet, and brushed snare. Wedding noir-ish jazz to reggae and blues, he sings of lives on the brink: "In a world full of competition/Life is a gun full of ammunition/And as your hopes and dreams get bigger/It'll stick you up and pull the trigger...."
Ogan Gunning's union-organizing anthem "I Hate the Capitalist System" is offered plaintively and poignantly with fingerpicked acoustic guitars and tender support vocals from reggae legend
Ghetto Priest. "What Does a Man Do All Day" contrasts the animal and human worlds amid steamy reggae, mercurial jazz piano, and punchy acoustic guitars, while dubwise horns and urgent cello paint the margins. The gorgeous title track owes a debt to
Curtis Mayfield. It's sweet, sad, wise, and poignant; a soulful paean to those deliberately overlooked, discounted, and maligned. The breezy "I've Enjoyed as Much of the Good Life (As I Can Take)" joins lithe acoustic guitars, cello, and a snare/hi-hat shuffle as
Nichols' protagonist decides to walk away from a darkness imposed by the media and virtual realities for a simpler, directly experiential life. The reading of
Guthrie's "Deportees" is made ingenious by
Sherwood. He considers and updates topical folk music for the 21st century, while
Nichols comments on the immigrant struggle through a first person protagonist. "Looking for Some Rain" is a loose soul tune that owes a debt to
Curtis Mayfield, musically and lyrically.
Nichols' delivery is laid-back and breezy.
Sherwood adds reverb to harmonica over a honky tonk piano and a B-3 framing funky guitars.
Nichols and
Sherwood are a nearly symbiotic team on
United States of the Broken Hearted. They allow the songs to dictate what they need, then treat them so lyric, melody, and meaning are related directly atop instinctive, and often gorgeous, uncluttered accompaniment. This is a high-water mark for both men. ~ Thom Jurek