[ad_1]
Mountain country crooner Logan Ledger recently released the first two singles of his debut self-titled album, produced by T Bone Burnett and due out in October. "Starlight" and "Imagining Raindrops" are a resounding introduction for the native Californian, who works in an aesthetic better qualified as "Black Country".
"Starlight", with its cosmic country and Bakersfield ambience, straddles the line between Buck Owens and Dick Dale, while "Imagining Raindrops" is a clbadic and nostalgic ballad full of sadness and resounding steel. Ledger sings both as a modern George Jones with an appreciation of Chris Isaak's elegant and dark mood. It's the darkest shade of blue.
T Bone Burnett has been amazing in creating a specific and unique mood for albums. The albums he has produced are often a common sound palette where this atmosphere and feeling endure from beginning to end.
Absolutely. These are songs that I wrote that did not make the album precisely for this reason. They just did not fit. This album is very dark. It's scary and mysterious. He is good at it.
Often, when you think of a dark country album, you consider it as Southern Gothic. It is almost weighed with a thickness in the air. In your music, though, there is a darkness, but it's a lot more of an elegant black sensation.
Totally. I think lyric is where there is a major difference. It may be Western Gothic.
How much of this is advised and trained growing up in California? There seems to be a lot of influence from Bakersfield Sound.
Yeah, Bakersfield has always talked about electric instruments and dancing rhythms. It was more of western music. If you look at the 50s, the differences between western and country music were more apparent. Country was more in line with the likes of Roy Acuff. It was a hillbilly country thing without drums. Western was more Bob Wills and Speedy West with electric guitars and is danceable. Now this distinction is almost meaningless. I imagine that Ernest Tubb has somehow brought western waves into the traditional version of country music of that era.
Some of these other Californian sounds and scenes have also entered the mix. There is surf rock and a touch of the cosmic desert tones of Joshua Tree that add another texture. Was this wanted?
I guess at a certain level it's a conscious decision because I want to create something new. Surf Rock is so similar to Western. These are the same twangy guitars. It's like it's the common denominator. Electric Fender Guitars. It's not really difficult to merge. When I was younger, I learned a lot of surf rock instrumentals. That's part of my vocabulary. I also wanted to integrate some of psychedelia in San Francisco. It's not super-apparent, but subtly.
You mentioned the fact that a song like "Starlight" takes a minimalist approach, which you call "hillbilly haikus". Does this also come from the inspiration of 1950's country music?
Yeah. Most of my favorite writers of the fifties and sixties, they were all really minimal lyricists. If you think of a lot of Willie Nelson's songs, like "Crazy," "Funny How Time Slips Away," etc., they are all lyrical, but incredibly deep. They hit you. A song like "Crazy" is universally applicable. It's not even really a country song. It's just a great pop song. All this time, these writers were trying to create international success on a certain level. Like the songs that Hank Cochran wrote for Patsy Cline. These are both verses and a chorus. I've always been fascinated by that. You have so many singers and songwriters writing these long disjointed songs. I've always been the opposite of that.
This minimalist approach also lends itself to your ability to sing these songs as a crooner.
This is absolutely true. If you are too wordy, you can not really sing the syllables. Each note must be a syllable instead of being able to look like George Jones and lengthen a word.
This refers to the aspects of the black country. Do you think this also adds to the loneliness and melancholic feelings of your composition?
So much of country music is in the delivery. That's how you can mimic tears or make every note suffer. This is one of my favorite aspects of the great country singers – the stylistic aspects of the genre. They were able to fold notes and have different vocal tracks. The guy who pushed that to another level was Lefty Frizzell, right? He had blackmail in this form of art. Other guys like George Jones, Merle [Haggard], no matter, they were heavily influenced by Lefty.
Source link
