Kevin Gordon’s Shiny Swamp Fonk

Kevin Gordon hangs out in Nashville. But don’t confuse him with the all hat and no cattle bunch, the ones country Squidbilly demon crooner Unknown Hinson calls “a bunch of steroid eatin’ pretty boys with cowboy hats and shaved chests.” Gordon’s muddy roots spring from native Northern Louisiana soil, and his music used to be tagged with that alt prefix. But Gordon’s sound is the main thing, not the alternative, drawn from soil settlers spilled all down the Mississippi River banks.
Gordon revisits Louisiana for his latest, Tilt and Shine, but he has little interest in struttin’ through city streets wearing beads and wavin’ a hanky. The singer/guitarist/songwriter puts on some hip waders and goes down in the swamp to unearth original treasures from the muck.

Gordon sounds like a hi-test blend of Elvis Costello, Steve Earle and Bob Dylan doing a Springsteen song backed by the twin guitars of Los Straitjackets on “Saint On A Chain.”

It’s a chilling account of a man contemplating suicide or perhaps redemption, protected by a Saint Christopher medal his mother gave him. Things have gotten complicated since he left his small town where the chances of making it were slim, and he’s gone off the rails after his wife grew cold to his touch and changed the locks after rumors of his infidelity. Now he gets by by taking his lonesome down with a Percoset and a shot of Crown. The song ends with the protagonist sailing down the road doing 85 with one hand on the wheel, wanting to let it all go and be ferried to the other side by the saint on his chain. It’s literary sleigh of hand that leaves you stunned and envious of the magician who can paint such an emotional portrait so clearly with such economy of words.

Sounding like it was written by Randy Newman and snarled out by Elvis Costello,the rattly rocker “Get It Together”is a sardonic note to self about pulling yourself out of a drunken funk and getting your shit together, doing something about your world-weary, sorry self.

Gordon says his borrowed fake Strat on “One Road Out Angola Rodeo Blues” sounds “like Satan coming out of the sewer,”Tony Joe White style swamp fonk backing the narrative of the inmate rodeo at Angola where inmates risk their already forfeited lives for a few minutes of dusty glory on the back of a bull.

“Drunkest Man In Town” sounds like Stones honky-tonk celebrating the dubious honor of being the most prominent member in the local alky hall of fame.

Like all good rockers, Gordon slurs and mumbles some of his lyrics, but that just makes the deciphering more rewarding as his treasures are unearthed bit by bit. It’s always a pleasure to see what he does so succinctly with only a few syllables, and a challenge for all of us to try a little harder to express ourselves in a more coherent and interesting fashion.