Souled American – Frozen / Notes Campfire

Souled American are one of those bands that exist in a sphere of influence where too few heard them, but those that did were left with a mark that would often make its way into their own music. They’re the proverbial band that launched a hundred other bands. The group’s run on Rough Trade holds a higher profile, slipping onto formative Alt-country lists, but their final two albums, originally for German label Moll Tonträger are the releases that pushed them into riveting and revelatory territory. These have long lingered out of print and are just now, finally, getting the due they deserve. The band was long known for a slower, slightly glowering take on country, but on Frozen and its follow-up Notes Campfire, the band would work themselves into a molasses-thick vision of the West that’s caught in an ouroboros of smoke and soot.

A while back, Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats did a Hidden Gems for the site, picking Frozen from his past favorites and describing it as “syrupy, highly psychedelic folk songs with keening country vocals,” going on to note that “it’s music that gives exactly zero fucks about having a wide commercial reach from a tempo, vocal and tonal perspective.” That about sums it up for Frozen and Notes Campfire. It’s the band let loose from the moorings of expectations and left to explore the outer edges of their sound. Souled American wandered the periphery of Alt-country, but let the punk and outlaw edges get sanded, seeking a sound more akin to Loren Connors backing Gary Louris on a three day bender staring into the abyss.

Both albums have been out of print for years, but now Scissor Tail has put them back into print with new liner notes, comics, and more. The album’s arrive with great expectation among those who’ve been waiting for years. It’s great to see definitive editions of both albums back in the world, feeling out the shape of loneliness for a new generation.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.