Wild Pink Still Coming Down
Wild Pink’s 2022 album, ILYSM, was one of my favorite records of that year. Songwriter John Ross’s details of his (successful) cancer treatments struck nerves that I hadn’t realized were still raw from my own all-too-similar health problems from five years earlier. Since that album (and the undoubtedly tough press cycle surrounding it), Ross and his band have separated themselves a bit from the pristine technical wizardry that reached its zenith on ILYSM. 2024’s Dulling the Horns was a feast of loud guitar rock which translated fantastically to the small-but-mighty band’s live sets. Wild Pink’s new record, Still Coming Down, adds to the cacophony – it’s a gorgeously noisy representation of what one man can do when the worst of life is in the rearview.
No matter the volume or instrumentation, the key to a Wild Pink song lies in the oddball specificity in John Ross’ lyrics. The album’s lead single, “Round of Applause at the End of the World,” which musically calls to mind the heartland rock of late 80s John Mellencamp, is Ross’s interpretation of the latter days of November 1963, featuring one of my favorite couplets of the year – “A patsy killed a patsy/And they laughed it up in Langley” – while reminding us that, in the sixty-some years since, even with our immediate access to information, very little in the way of government manipulation has changed. Ross’s history of sports references also resurfaces – former Athletics exec Billy Beane gets a drive-by in the uber-riffy “Like Water,” but the best instance is found in the (relatively) pensive “500 Is the New 250,” a lonely man’s lament where gambling and an ugly vehicle – “Took the cyber truck/To my favorite bar ‘Hard Luck’/To bet on my phone and drink alone/The Steelers are in Baltimore tonight/I got no dog though, I got no fight” – fail to substitute for human connection.
Ross opted to leave New York and record Still Coming Down in Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios with producer Alex Farrar (who also has a record with Brooklyn’s Ok Cowgirl out this week). With that move came visits from North Carolina’s finest, including last year’s tourmate MJ Lenderman. “Dead for A Sec” features the Kings of Deadpan at first laconically matching each other before Lenderman switches to impressive harmonies (anyone who’s heard his vocals on Thomas Dollbaum’s Birds of Paradise won’t find this surprising). The album also features appearances from maybe my two favorite pedal steel players, Mike “Slo Mo” Brenner and Lenderman’s bandmate, Xandy Chelmis. The title track features guitar from Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and a fantastically scratchy fiddle line from Landon George, but once again, the success of the song hinges on Ross’s precise lyrics. Still to trying to recover from, well, everything – “There’s no other sound/But pain’s a loop that follows” – Ross reaches a point, as all of us do, where he realizes that perfection, in any sense, is unattainable by mere mortals – “I used to be pure/I just try to be good now.” And, if you can’t be perfect, might as well layer on more guitars and raise a happy ruckus.
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Round of Applause at the End of the World” – Loaded with Chelmis pedal steel and featuring accordion from Sparrow Smith, the song concludes with the line, “I don’t know what my idea of fun is anymore.” Well, John, MY idea is hearing this one, live ‘n’ loud, about 18 inches away from the speaker.
Still Coming Down was produced, engineered and mixed by Alex Farrar and mastered by Greg Obis. Songs written by John Ross. Musicians on the album include John Ross (guitar, vocals, piano, harmonica), Dan Keegan (drums), Landon George (bass, fiddle, banjo), MJ Lenderman (guitar, vocals), Meg Duffy (guitar), Alex Farrar (keys; guitar), James Richardson (guitar), Adam Schatz (sax), John Cunningham (keys), Ben Carbone (guitar; sax), Julian McClanahan (fiddle), Xandy Chelmis (pedal steel), Mike Brenner (pedal steel, dobro), Jack Victor (piano) and Sparrow Smith (accordion).
Go here to order/stream Still Coming Down (out August 21): https://www.wildpinkmusic.com/merch
https://open.spotify.com/prerelease/3k61lhPa195uE3hZrGe0Gi?si=c5d3883989c74a2c
Check out tour dates here: https://www.wildpinkmusic.com/tour-dates