trax | abbott carter ::
:: a selection of songs from Austin, Texas-based “Abbott Carter,” an up-and-coming folk singer / songwriter and one of my closest friends. If memory serves me correctly, I taught him his first guitar chord. Have a listen, excellent stuff. Feel free to leave feedback, yah or nah are both fine. To hear more of Abbott Carter, link here. // AjS
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March 10th, 2009 at 12:13 am
here’s my ranking of these songs-
1) burden onto you- my head gets going/bobbing on this one immediately. great rhythm. reminds me of one of bob dylan’s earlier songs–from one of the bootleg series. great movement–between verses and chorus–also going somewhere fresh and pleasing. also, the vocals are better here than lots of the other songs. confident and not trying to hard to sound like some country alter-ego. i love when the pace slows down for the “creatures in the grass” part. just cool lyrics and great pace. like the “rub the sleep from your eyes” line. at times, some of the other songs sound flat and long, but i feel like i don’t want this one to end.
2) the forgotten time- obviously, carter must like this one since he took so much time rounding it. the production quality is immediately appealing/good job with the layering. i feel like in a lot of the songs, the vocals are buried too deep in the mix and it kind of cheapens them–but here, i feel like the locals and instrumentals are well balanced.. steady, creeping pace—i like the little electric guitar interludes and the background pulsing piano chords/bass strumming (??). reminds me of waves breaking and rising again–like the “and the sun rains down on so many pale moons” part–kind of picks you up a little bit before the song settles back down. again, good movement–like it’s all pretty laid back, but it keeps taking you new places. same thing with the “shards of light stretching long” part. just keeps trucking along. i did read the lyrics to this one when your site was up and i remember liking them, though they’re pretty abstract. this song makes me feel like carter’s sound can go to a lot of interesting, ie, i like that this is less country. more of an original sound rather than trying to do a more traditional bluegrass sound.
3) the devils are jacks and queens- i like the structure of the lyrics in this song, like they speed up and slow down in the right places. i love the solo at the end–feels perfectly placed as a book end, but i feel like it fades out too quickly. can’t really think of a lot to say about this one except that it’s immediately likeable. has a good edgy, darker quality to it, and the electric guitar is a nice touch.
4) all of a sudden- this one seems to have a lullaby quality. very chill, rather sombre, and calming. haunting in parts. might bore some audiences and i wouldn’t put it on the first half of any jj mix, but it does have a good tempo. also, this does not come off as a contrived country/bluegrass song–feels genuine. strumming breaks help break it up to some extent. again, dylan comes to mind. i like the “betrayed” line–pretty ominous. i feel like this one is in the same vein as “jacks & queens” in that it’s slower and kind of dark.
5) baby- i do like the harmonizing with the female vocalist. the guitar sound is a little piercing and harsh. probably a bit too loud in the mix. this one definitely is playing the bluegrass role up more than in some of the others. the song might be a little too cute, which doesn’t make me want to keep returning for subsequent listens, but could be what you’re going for. good little solos between verses. i don’t know, it’s not bad, i just feel like this song was probably too easy –not as interesting/compelling as a lot of your others. that being said, this could be on like the “o brother where art thou” or the “cold mountain” soundtrack–traditional, throw back sound.
6) how long blues- good guitar, but i feel like the fake country accent immediately distracts me and prevents me from taking this one too seriously. also, the rapping/rapid lyrics make me smile, and some make me chuckle, but i just don’t find myself enjoying it as much as the others. it also gets slightly repetitive with the “how longs”. this song, along with “baby”, are tough for me to critique or even comment on because they could be exactly what you’re going for, but they are not really appealing to my music taste. they are fun, but i like the songs with more abstract lyrics–with more of an edge–songs 1-4 on this list. those are more interesting to me.
March 10th, 2009 at 7:00 am
i like that burden song. it made the stuff in between my ears and my brain feel good… but i also went back through and started listening to more of these songs. a lot of these songs are really good…while i could go over each one specifically like the previous poster, it’s probably more helpful to say that i like the general “feel” or “sound” of the newer tracks, where there’s a kind of blending of traditional and modern sensibilities
March 10th, 2009 at 7:08 am
I really dig the stuff going on underneath.. on some songs i can’t really tell if it’s cello, stand up bass, midi, or others like I Can’t Wait with that chime and other rhythm parts… but I think the backing parts add some interest and the songs sound full and thoughtful but still low fi. I think it would be cool if there was even more use w/ instrumentation and layered up sections of the songs so there are twists and turns to them. For example, I like a song like Baby b/c how sparse it is in spots, but I could see the second half turning into something fuller and even rollicking w/ piano and horns or something. I like Forgotten Time too…it’s got kind of a Wilco sensibility to it, esp w/ that turn around section w/ the electric guitar. I’ll Wait for the Children is also very cool.