Aaron Matthews is not pictured in this photo.
Cotton Jones make music to brood and sip whiskey to. Michael Nau’s honeyed, slightly raspy croon wraps around woozy organs and guitar strums like an old scarf, working a wonderful chemistry with the sweet coo of Whitney McGraw. Tall Hours channels the druggy haze and odd chemistry of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra’s duets. Or to put it another way: this album sounds like “Some Velvet Morning” on codeine and bourbon.
There’s a bit more nuance than that, though. The band piece together their borderline psychedelic music from an intriguing melange of country rock instrumentation like pedal steel and more unconventional tools. Lyrically, Nau and McGraw work with the southern Americana milieu of Creedence, turning “Somehow To Keep It Going” into a rolling ode to the river. The melancholy “Man Climbs Out Of Winter” builds off acoustic twang and what sounds like one of the wooden frog noisemakers. Organs swim through Nau’s midday reveries on “Dream On Columbia Street,” like a tour through a man’s heart on a windy day.
Though the album’s best suited for fall weather, dust off Tall Hours off next time you’re trudging off to work. No guarantees, but a surprisingly well-preserved Nancy Sinatra just might appear.
Download:
Mp3: Cotton Jones-”Something to Keep it Going”
MP3: Cotton Jones-”Dream on Columbia St.”
2 comments
Alex says:
January 19, 2011 at 4:17 pm (UTC -7)
‘this album sounds like “Some Velvet Morning” on codeine and bourbon.’
incredibly effective sales pitch
Mark says:
March 14, 2011 at 1:54 pm (UTC -7)
It does have that special intoxicating effect.
Glad to read so many articles that see the magic in their music.
Folk, Neo-Psychedelia, Dream Pop, Southern Gothic, Swamp Rock–it’s all swirling together in their sounds.
The only other band right now that taps into the roots as beautifully is Fleet Foxes.
The River Strumming is the coolest record under the radar and Tall Hours in the Glowstream is cosmic Americana.
I spoke with Michael Nau during the concert in St. Louis and asked him what his favorite album was. It is, ironically enough, Astral Weeks (also the fave of Robin Pecknold.) It has been in my top 5 for years on end.
Cotton Jones seem to share that same mystic vantage point as Van Morrison’s debut.