Austin Sound

“It’s over, I got nowhere left to run,” confides Randy Reynolds on his latest album Love & Harm, and it’s almost true; after moving to Austin in 2005 in the wake of Hurricae Rita, Reynolds, or rather “Leatherbag,” began to carve out a home for himself in the Austin music scene, releasing his debut album Nowhere Left To Run after two excellent EPs for local label Superpop!, as well manning the producer knobs on Graham Weber’s Door To The Morning. So it’s safe to say Reynolds has quit running and found his place in the creation of his second LP, Love & Harm. But when it comes to settling down, the album does no such thing.

It’s moments like this that truly make Austin an amazing musical town. Bringing together the impressive talent stables of local imprints C-Side and Superpop, No Bridges to Cross features members The Channel, Golden Bear, Leatherbag, The Archibalds, Hope Irish, Secret Sideshow, and Brother Machine – basically a massive collective of nearly every artist associated with the labels. The crux of the project, however, is built upon the songwriting talents Driftin’ Luke (Colby Pennington) and Leatherbag (Randy Reynolds), both extremely prolific and wide-ranging writers who here push each other’s songs in new, spectacular directions.

If one were compiling a framework of traits that destine an artist for pure success in the music scene, one would surely find it sensible, if not unavoidable, to include the following: 1) Draw your influences from Texas country and British punk; 2) Get yourself born with a name like “Hope Irish” (or something comparably awesome); 3) Commission album art consisting of psychedelic bugs and semi-naked women. Or, as in the case of The Best of The Least, you can satisfy all 3 of the above and include a bunch of great tunes on your album as well.

Superpop! Records is home to a few young standout artists in Austin. Run by Seth Gibbs and Peter Stafford, the label is an extension of the Superpop! Studios, which allows the label to work closely with its artists from start to finish. Gibbs also produces his own work for the label as Brother Machine, as well as contributing, along with Stafford, to the other bands on the label. Superpop!’s artists are united more by principle and approach than to a distinct genre or sound, which makes the label’s output among the most exciting and eclectic in town. You can find out more about the studio and label on their Myspace or at www.superpoprecords.com

On his exquisitely melancholic Love Me Like the Devil EP released last year, Leatherbag’s songs hung heavy in the strains of a cello and slide guitar. There was a mournful air attached to the dreams of escape in songs like “Tennessee” and “New York,” a sadness and desperation that underpinned, and undermined, the illusion of the promise in the open road. On his much-anticipated full-length debut, Nowhere Left to Run, that realization seems fulfilled as Leatherbag sings from the other side of disillusion. Nowhere pines through lost loves, haunted memories and roads taken to their disappointing dead ends, yet, somewhat paradoxically, floats more lightly than his previous efforts.

With a name like Leatherbag (and his backing band “The Cows”), you might expect a rollicking, honkey-tonk sound or even a loud and crass hell-billy rock. In actuality, however, the songs on Love Me Like the Devil are all soft and slow folk narratives, deftly written and understatedly delivered with a mournful cello and slide-guitar backing.

Leatherbag’s voice is rough hewn with a weariness expressed in the best folk songs, but the scratchiness of his singing isn’t overpowering. Rather it shades these songs gently with age and a wise-beyond-his-years sound in the vein of William Elliot Whitmore. The songs also move with a mysterious, slightly uneven phrasing that makes it seem as if only he could properly sing them. But those unique inflections and pauses also keep the songs interesting and rewarding amid the album’s overall lack of variation.