40. Grayson Capps: Wail & Ride (2006)
A lot of roots rock fans have a tendency to look backwards, assured the
best has already been and gone with Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Cash, Fred
Neil, Gram Parsons, etc. Pity because New Orleans' marvel Grayson Capps
is alive and well and slowly building one of the most phenomenal
songbooks in America today. His sophomore album, Wail & Ride,
hums with quiet wisdom and unforced momentum. It grows with you over
time, different facets touching a nerve depending on your own levels of
sorrow and joy. It's the kind of album that gets troubled souls through
tumultuous nights where perhaps the trouble we find ourselves in is of
our own making. "Poison" and "Give It To Me" should be Big Easy
standards, and he's equally gifted at tenderness and introspection
here. What amazes is how Capps isn't a household figure amongst the
roots/Americana crowd in the same way Gillian Welch, Steve Earle and
David Rawlings have become in recent years. If ever there were a cat
primed to pick up where Lowell George and John Prine have left off,
it's Capps.
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