The sixth album from Josh Haden and his nom de plume Spain, Carolina takes a series of slow turns but ends up in a place that’s strangely alluring and engaging. Haden, the son of legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden, is a master of that craft, his meditative melodies and astute rumination a perfect combination for provoking thought and pensive observations. Haden’s tone is both somber and sobering, particularly when, in the aptly identified opener “The Depression,” he rattles off a litany of modern calamities known all too well to anyone whose future is invested in the stock market. “When the market crashed, our hopes were dashed, we lost everything,” he moans. It’s a sad testament to life’s unfortunate ironies, a point he returns to on the equally affecting “In My Hour” and several other bracing songs thereafter.
Yet, apart from the ongoing laments indicative of the modern era, Haden and his compatriots — producer/engineer Kenny Lyon on acoustic and electric guitars, lap steel, pedal steel, banjo, keyboards, and piano, and his sister Petra Haden on violin and vocals among them — also peel the corners back on historical occurance. Opening track “Tennessee” tells of a homesteader in 1875 who has his land stolen by a cattle baron, only to sleep sleep with the homesteader’s wife, and then have tradition continue when his great-great-great-great grandson follows suit by absconding with the wife of the cattle baron’s great-great-great-great grandson. Less ironic, but equally telling, “One Last Look” takes its inspiration from the 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster, a tragedy that prompted Congress to pass new mining regulations a year later that expanded miners rights.
Still, it’s the mood that prevails overall, a low cast and pensive gaze that’s been Spain’s prime directive since their original formation some 20 years prior. Granted, it’s not the sort of thing that will keep a party hopping, but it does offer cause for reflection on a woeful morning after.
