Down the Pipe: Austinist Capsules Rocky Votolato
Rocky Votolato The Brag and Cuss (Barsuk)
Since his auspicious beginnings as frontman for the indie/post-punk group Waxwing, Rocky Votolato has become quite the everlasting song writer. He’s a pro at crafting emotion-evoking indie rock tunes that carefully toe the line between matured folk rock and angst-inspired acoustic balladry.
It’s important to note, however, that Votolato generally steers clear of cliched, woe-is-me, hear-on-sleeve lyrics. He keeps his out of plain view, in bits and phrases in songs about death and vice steeped in beautiful imagery. He’s not all about the slow strum and whine. No, he’s more of a straight bourbon guy—a drink that no doubt helps to coat the throat of a man who glides through phrases and then nearly yells himself hoarse during some of the more gravely choruses.
The Brag and Cuss, Votolato’s fifth solo disc, finds him settling down in the country/folk of his Texas roots. We see more harmonica, banjo, mandolin and less raw emotion. He moves out of the acoustic settings of his previous records and promptly plops himself down in the middle of a band full of musicians borrowed from such acts as Sufjan Stevens, Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter, Pedro the Lion and Cat Power. While his last record, Makers, fostered comparisons to early Elliott Smith, his new outing rings truer with the likes of Whiskeytown. Tunes like “Lilly White” are as bleak as the moonless desert night’s sky. Others such as “Postcard From Kentucky” dazzle lyrically to the tune of a plucky banjo and choruses that linger on.
Although it’s clear on The Brag and Cuss that Votolato still has the ability of whipping listeners into a frenzy, we're still left longing for the intimacy of him, his guitar and a throat full of feelings he must get off his chest.
