Greg Brown – Honey In The Lion’s Head

This isn’t Greil Marcus’ or Harry Smith’s old, weird America. This is Richard Dyer-Bennet’s, Pete Seeger’s, and Burl Ives’ — in other words, songs for parlors and hootenannies that no longer exist, commonplace songs that aren’t so commonplace anymore. Some are sentimental, most are archetypes; all are more subtle and complex than you might remember or imagine.

The set opens with “Railroad Bill”, a melodic and narrative cousin to “Stagger Lee”, but comic rather than tragic. Occasionally the blues turn tougher, denser. “I Believe I’ll Go Back Home” is a version of the Prodigal Son story, one of three biblically resonant tunes on this set, but it’s so far outside the blues canon that in Brown’s snarl the song sounds sui generis. Even more archaic is the set’s only murder ballad, a spooky children’s song called “Who Killed Cock Robin?” (Answer: the sparrow, “with my little bow and arrow,” although in the end the whole of the natural world is implicated.)

The set’s only gesture to folk revival politics, Jim Garland’s union man anthem “I Don’t Want Your Millions Mister” (along with the new Brown song “Ain’t No One Like You”, the only non-public domain song included), is also the set’s only awkward, even nostalgic moment. Far better is the gospel rage of “Samson”, on which Brown reunites with Bo Ramsey’s corrosive, electric thump-and-groove and tears through a surreal version of judgment day.

The pre-electric settings of acoustic guitar, banjo (lots of it, from former Bill Monroe sideman Bob Black), acoustic bass, fiddle, mandolin, and whispered vocal support from Brown’s daughters Pieta and Constie, plus one moaning cameo from his wife Iris DeMent on the sing-along “Jacob’s Ladder”, feel spontaneous if not downright casual. That living room aesthetic more than suits these songs — it keeps the focus on the melodies (which the songwriter has so clearly absorbed) and on Brown’s mischievous, rasping baritone.

That voice clears away the musty, folksy history from “Old Smokey” (as in “On top of…”) and “Down In The Valley”, and gets straight to their secrets. For Brown, the flexible lyrics and deathless tunes of his youth have always remained true, and he more than repays the debt he owes them.