Willie Carlyle’s folk music focuses on the shadows of the hills and the people who shout loudly, or what he calls “Critterland.”
That’s the title of his new album, Carlyle’s charming follow-up. 2022 breakout release “Peculiar, Missouri”. Once again, populist fables feature a colorful cast of characters who navigate the drama and trauma of the lives of the have-nots in ways that challenge simple assumptions about rural identity, prejudice, and suffering.
“They think I’m gay and a communist,” Carlyle’s protagonist laments in the title cut, holding a rifle toward the apocalypse.
Based in Joplin, Missouri, Carlisle draws on his literary background to craft fluent lyrics that explore wild rides across unforgiving terrain. There’s a reason he mentions all-terrain tires. His songs about addiction, suicide, daddy issues, and two-headed lambs find beauty and lessons in life and death outside the mainstream.
Producer Darrell Scott cleverly combines guitar, banjo, harp, accordion, and more to add variety to the simple arrangement. Carlyle’s wise and ironic tenor and story do not require much instrumental accompaniment. In fact, there is none in the final cut, “The Money Grows on Trees.” His seven-minute tale of greed, corruption, and the ways of the outlaw, where folk music and poetry meet.
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