Grayson Capps – Wail & Ride

Prior to the Katrina disaster, Grayson Capps lived in New Orleans for twenty years, imbibing that city’s spirit with a poet’s eye (and ear) for detail. The result was a finely tuned sense of place that lay at the heart of his 2005 solo debut, If You Knew My Mind. Capps now finds himself living in Franklin, Tennessee, a refugee like many others, but his new album shows his beloved New Orleans remains his primary muse.

Capps’ influences range from Waylon Jennings to Delbert McClinton to Dr. John and beyond, but his backwoods blend of outlaw toughness and bayou mystery is distinctly his own. The epic, towering “Mermaid” and the deceptively chipper “Poison”, for instance, are rife with the sort of gothic imagery you might find in a Flannery O’Connor short story. Similarly, the bleak character sketch “Daddy’s Eyes” sounds like a John Prine song sans the latter’s predilection for irony.

That’s not to say Wail & Ride is a relentlessly dour affair. The playful “Jukebox” is a straight up honky-tonk ditty, nothing more and nothing less. The ragtime song “Give It To Me” is served up with salacious bluster, while the aptly titled “New Orleans Waltz” is a poignantly optimistic celebration of the Crescent City.

Indeed, even the darkest moments on Wail & Ride project an offhand charm that beckons. Right out of the chute, Capps seems to have dialed in to that ephemeral aspect of his old hometown.