Luke Bell The King is Back
I hate to admit that I didn’t know much about Luke Bell when he was still with us. The Kentucky-born, Wyoming-raised country singer-songwriter lived for just 32 years before disappearing in Arizona and dying as a result of bipolar disorder. That’s the sad part of his short life. Before that, though, he wrote and recorded dozens of fantastic songs, released several albums and, most importantly, focused on creating a community centered around music. His work has attracted increased attention and admiration in the three years since his passing. Now, we have a collection of some of his best work – much of it previously unreleased – to remember him by. The King Is Back includes 28 tracks of raw country music, with 100% of royalties going toward the Luke Bell Memorial Affordable Counseling Program.
I know that posthumous releases can chuck a bunch of subpar material out into the world, but that’s absolutely not the case with The King is Back; maybe the highest compliment I can pay this collection is that you don’t need to know any of the backstory to enjoy it – it’s a bunch of good damn songs. There are seven previously released tracks from his Don’t Mind if I Do Kickstarter-funded album, including the horny honky-tonker “Rattlesnake Man” – “Did you ever see a bee in a honey pot/Well you open the lid, she fly in the top” – but the other 21 are unreleased tracks recorded in various sessions from 2014-2016. Country weeper ”All I’ve Got” paints a picture of the wreckage after a love leaves – “All I’ve got’s the dirty clothes left on the floor/Dirty pots and pans that I’ve left on the stove. ”Hand to Hold” is an uptempo chugger of a kiss-off to a former partner – “I don’t need another woman for a mother/Tellin’ me that I act like a child.” And “Stag” is a tangy barroom stomper that finds Bell trying to replace that love with, well, anything – “I’m steppin’ out, I’m going stag/And I’m acting single.” All of these songs are filled with music from an outstanding set of players (which varies from session to session). The roadhouse piano from Mark Sloan on “Stag,” Leo Grassl’s pedal steel solo on “Blue Freightliner” and Stephen Daly’s electric solo on “Guitar Man” are just a few stand-out moments, but everything on The King is Back is a fully realized track bolstered by fantastic musicians.
As the songs progress, though, you can feel the restlessness – the lack of comfort – that Bell was experiencing as his illness deepened. There are a number of songs with vivid vocational imagery – “Horseflies,” “Roofer’s Blues,” “Irrigator’s Blues” – that indicate his hard-working, but scattershot, attempts to survive as he continued to make music (and these are the kind of gigs that he actually worked – no fake cowboy shit to be found on this record). Even an earlier recording, the previously released “Black Crows,” indicates what Bell was enduring – “Black crows around my heart/Black crows around my brain.” Some of the later tracks feature more ragged vocals; “Bottom of the Sea,” in particular, is heartbreaking as much for Bell’s audible melancholy as his lyrics – “You can sail me to the bottom/With a rock around my feet/And there my love would be.” But the evident-to-the careful-listener truth of The King is Back is important to understanding the indispensable nature of these recordings. As I was listening, I was also thinking of Bruce Springsteen’s bouts with deep depression, well-documented but, due to the renewed focus on Nebraska, news to many people this very autumn. In the 40-plus years since Springsteen first sought help, we’ve barely scratched the surface of truly dealing with mental illness. Luke Bell’s end was tragic, but his legacy, through his family’s and friends’ efforts in assembling this collection, will hopefully lead to treatment for those who, financially, would otherwise not be able to adequately address their mental health. That’s something worth singing about.
The King is Back was executive produced by Carol Bell and Brian Buchanan, produced by Andrija Tokic, Luke Bell, Justin Francis and Stephen Daly, mixed by Tokic, Francis and Daly, engineered by Tokic, Francis and Joey Knieser and mastered by Raelynn Janicke. All songs written by Luke Bell. Musicians on the album include Bell (vocal, acoustic guitar, harmonica), Jimmy Lester (drums, percussion), Dave Spicher (bass), Avery Bright (fiddle), Micah Hulscher (keys), Stephen Daly (pedal steel, elecgtric guitar, Dobro), Kiki Cavazos (harmony vocals0, Meshell Rigsby (harmony vocals), Dave Roe (harmony vocals), Casey Driscoll (fiddle), Ryan Elwell (drums, percussion, harmony vocals), Carter Brallier (bass), Leo Grassl (pedal steel), Mark Sloan (keys), Pete Lindberg (drums) and Matt Menold (electric guitar).
Go here to order The King is Back (out November 7): https://30tgrs.ffm.to/tkib-album
To learn more about the Luke Bell Memorial Affordable Counseling Program, go here: https://www.lbmacp.org/