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One of the privileges afforded by folk music belongs to the songwriter: the amount of space in which they can craft their worlds and their stories of truth, temptation, and many times, failure and heartache. A handful of leather-throated troubadours like Kris Kristofferson and Towns van Zandt have portrayed their own beautiful and sardonic personas in their carefully written pastoral, road/trail weary narratives. It’s the characters and, often times, their flaws that keep us listening.
In respect to Minorcan’s (aka Ryan Anderson) 12″ debut release on Blood on the Vinyl, Keep at Hand, three characters are woven into the tapestry of this LP. They are apparent on the album’s misleadingly stark cover. Pictured: A man and woman’s lower torsos in partial undress are seen being roped down by a pair of red stained hands. Given that Anderson’s lyrics almost obsessively revolve around the eternal, spiritual struggle of good and evil, it seems fitting that the unnamed pair of hands can be construed as part of a greater divine body. Peppered throughout Keep at Hand are allusions to biblical litany — specifically the devil’s ability to tempt man — lending to the album an authentic and restless southern ramble. The title itself beckons like a pastor’s hushed order to keep holy text close to heart and mind in times of a trying nature.
Minorcan’s focus is split throughout the album, shifting from the abysmal southern lore of “Bobby Frank Cherry” (“A legend lingers in the crinkled eyes of Willis Hatfield/ He cradles a pistol once owned by his father, a clansman”), to the whimsically heartfelt “I Wish it Would Storm Tonight” and “Sudden Spring” (“They’ll try to file us under ‘heartbroken’/ But we’ve got each other to hold”). These thematic book ends leave plenty of room for Anderson’s colloquial, idiomatic tendencies to orate on the world portrayed in Keep at Hand, sometimes in nursery rhyme meter and at other times in fractured, verbose phrasing.
For the most part, Minorcan’s elementary songwriting is endearing and catchy. The album staggers at times when Anderson attempts to pack all the threads of the album into a single song and, sometimes, a single verse. When his ideas aren’t pared down by his idiosyncratic writing, the songs lose their simplistic appeal. “Dragon’s Daughter” chugs with freight train folk riffing, but while Anderson jumps from fire-and-brimstone preaching, to a deputized mob mentality, to a yearning, heart broken 20-something, the audience gets lost. Other moments, when Anderson seems to be over-obsessively proselytizing against the evils of the “Devil” character as in the Dylan-esque “Barn Burning,” the song devolves into a tiring exercise in martyrdom.
But when Minorcan retains focus, the results are great. “Our Time”, an offbeat love song, strums along with subliminal nuanced grace: “You always wanted to live in New York City/ But you got stuck with me…but I’ve got you/ You’re my New York City.” Anderson shows his intuitive side with a swaying, mariachi-flavored country ballad simply called “I Wish it Would Storm Tonight”, almost as if he’d told you face to face. The song itself isn’t particularly remarkable, but it shows the ability of Anderson to tap into that communal, southern psyche: “Who doesn’t love an angry sky?”
There are plenty of folksy nooks and crannies for the mind to explore on Keep at Hand, and Anderson, being the bleary-eyed, country dreamer that he is, manages to ground himself enough to take the listener along with him on a few rides, despite the lack of ingenuous musicianship. But in the end, it’s a folk record, and it’s much more interesting to hear someone muse about sneaking a look into St. Peter’s book, getting a peek at his list, reversing their sins, and living in paradise forever (“In Vicksburg”) than any sort of instrumental vamping could ever be.
Websites:
http://minorcanmusic.com
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