The New Americana
Raised on George Jones & Lucinda (and maybe Biggie & Nirvana)
Hello from Philly.
Here to tell you about Merce Lemon, a singer and songwriter from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, whose new album, Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild, is a complete stunner of a record. It’s a collection of indie-rock-folkie-twang songs highly deserving of your attention.
Look. The indie-twang thang isn’t particularly new, right? Right.
I’m sure I’ll forget your favorite older hybrid indie/Americana band reference here so I apologize up front. However, looking as far back as the 80s, bands like Meat Puppets, The Jayhawks, The Walkabouts, Green On Red, The Mekons, Gear Daddies, Songs: Ohia, Joe Henry, Drive-Bys, Uncle Tupelo, Silver Jews, Palace Music, (and many many more) have done this thing we call - and might be able to collectively agree on - “Americana” - but with an “indie” twist whatever the heck that means. It could be “indie rock” it could mean “indie folk” - it’s an aesthetic and a distribution thing but ultimately the creative labeling part is all very subjective and sometimes nonsensical and you know, people need labels and categories and crates and envelopes and pill jars to put stuff in so they know “what it is.”
There’s a been a recent increase of new indie-rock twangsters starting to pleasantly infiltrate this so called “genre” called Americana. Americana isn’t actually a genre; it’s more a cohort of various musical communities with shared musical values that draws on multiple musical styles - country, alt-country, folk, bluegrass, pop, R&B, hip-hop, singer-songwriter, gospel, jazz, rock/indie-rock, and yes, some of these styles are even jam band aligned. (“Hey, we’re an Americana jam band” proclaimed one new band’s press release I got, and actually what the fuck does that even mean?”)
Anyway.
Merce Lemon draws on folk, indie-rock and the singer-songwriter tradition, has plenty of pedal steel and some fiddle and explosive electric guitar in its musical blood. I guess the pedal steel and fiddle give it its “Americana” leaning.
Melody and lyrics power Merce’s songs.
While I can’t hear the direct country influences in Merce’s music, Merce told Brooklyn Vegan that George Jones and Lucinda Williams were influential in the making of the new lp, as are The Replacements, Joanna Newsom, Slint, The Be Good Tanyas, and the band One Hundred Dollars (do check out this Canadian band)
Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild contains songs filled with aching and longing with strong emotional peaks and valleys. There’s plenty of intimate lyrical and musical moments - songs like “Crow,” and “Backyard Lover,” and “Foolish And Fast” have lyrics that read like a Joni song; say, something off of Hejira or For The Roses. Attention to detail is the order of the day for Lemon, and the ability to make the details of personal observation universally appealing.
Then there’s Merce’s voice: golden, autumnal, steady, sincere, effortlessly patient yet intentional and pointed. The songs, they build. And while the payoff is often the release, half the fun is getting to that point. Like Lucinda and Emmylou, she opens the car door for you, lulls you into the safe and slow ride down the road, not realizing until you get there, that you’re in sixth gear.
As LCD sing, “the kids are coming up.” Merce is part of an exciting swell of new Americana.1 It’s a growing community that includes MJ and Waxahatchee, Florry, and new comer Daffo from Philly, Wednesday, Big Thief, Faye Webster, Ratboys, Julia Jacklin, Greg Freeman, and others. Sometimes it’s the twang, or the drawl, sometimes it’s the indie rock, sometimes it’s the pedal steel, but all the time, great songs. Like the kind you hear on Merce’s fantastic new album.
Merce is about to hit a short tour including Catskill NY, Brooklyn, Chicago, Burlington, her hometown of Pittsburgh, and Philly, where she plays Johnny Brenda’s on Sunday, October 6.
How Folk and Country Became the Hottest Sounds in Indie Rock by Michael Lovito
Nice.