Don Merckle – Same Devil New Skin
Americana-Country & roots music didn’t originally feature any heavy-handed brass in their tunes but in the last few years – it’s there. The opening song “Covered In Dirt,” is fine enough but when the brass & chorus kick in they all support the propulsive vocals of Don Merckle (acoustic/electric guitar).
This is Don’s 4th full-length album & if he’s achieved anything he’s designed an album uniformly tight, varied & with depth & charm.
“Die In the Country,” is an old-fashion galloping C&W-type piece that the late Jim Reeves could’ve sung with his polished baritone. However, what frames this is the stylistic guitar performance that is not so much retro as perfectly suited to give the song an individuality as it plays.
Individuality. That’s the word that describes each melody & how it’s arranged on this 9-song Same Devil New Skin (Drops Sept 20/Angry Unicorn Records/41:21) that ruminates in the misty environs of noir, folk-horror cinema, Spanish horn-flavored creepiness (“The Ballad of a Dead Man”), underground low-budget film dalliances & musical deviancy.
Funny, because as I listened I recalled a Johnny Depp film called “Dead Man.” And no sooner did I ponder that the ballad of the same name began to play. Creepy, Tom Waits-like & exceptionally good.
The set is well-recorded & the showcase is savoring. It was produced by Don with Evan Simmons (drums/percussion) & Zac Thomas (not sure if he is the artist Zack Thomas from TN) & captured in a studio in South Carolina.
Fortunately, Merckle isn’t only a musician but a lyrical poet — few songs echo what has been done before in mainstream music. He has a signature style like Tony Joe White had that’s obvious & compelling. Even the arrangements have the necessary overtones to strain the drama through a colander of evocative confluences. Each musician adds to the soulful route with inventive touches. An impressive set of music throughout.
What Don has effectively seized on (knowingly or not) is the colorfully eerie tonalities evident also on a great song by Vivabeat (“Man From China”) with its creepy whistling. Little additions like that make compositions memorable. Even songs I don’t highlight are not to be ignored. There’s rural darkness that permeates through the barren landscape where Don’s music is the acrid smoke-filled breeze, with manure in the fields, the cracking dead tree branches & dried autumn leaves shuffling around on the cold ground. That’s music not easy to emulate.
Highlights – “Covered In Dirt,” “Die In the Country,” “The Ballad of a Dead Man,” “Cabin In the Woods,” “Call the Lightning” & the superb “The Devil Showed Me His Hand.”
Musicians – Moses Andrews III (bass/keys/organ), Zach Bingham (electric/acoustic guitars), Mark Rapp (trumpet), Chris Bussell (sax/flute), Desiree Richardson, Lindsay Hollar (bgv) & Danny Morgan (mysterious whistling).
Color image courtesy of Don’s website. CD @ Bandcamp & https://donmerckle.com/
