Okkervil River – Black Sheep Boy

Although he made records of his own, oddball folkie Tim Hardin was better-known for interpretations of his work recorded by other iconoclasts: Nico, Scott Walker, and especially Bobby Darin, who went Top-10 in 1966 with “If I Were A Carpenter”. Black Sheep Boy, the third full-length by this versatile sextet from Austin, Texas, is named for Okkervil River’s opening cover of Hardin’s song about an unapologetic scoundrel — but the album owes more to Hardin than just its title.

Over the ten originals that follow, songwriter Will Sheff leads his ensemble (augmented with guest string and brass players who tastefully integrate a Tex-Mex feel to certain tunes) through a suite of vignettes told from varying perspectives, including the titular anti-hero’s, as well as those of the broken souls whose lives he has crashed through.

Who is telling each tale is secondary to what they say, and how they articulate it. A compelling lyricist and no-holds-barred singer, Sheff weaves brief asides and images — some quite violent (“I could tear his throat, spill his blood between my jaws,” snarls the narrator of “Black”) — into arresting stories.

Taken individually, each track is affecting. “Get Big”, a solemn lovers’ duet, is adorned with lap steel. On “For Real”, Sheff mutters as if trapped beneath the floorboards, until staccato power chords tear them up.

But Black Sheep Boy should be consumed whole, as it was audibly intended, with its thoughtful sequencing and ambient segues. Like its 2003 predecessor, Down The River Of Golden Dreams, this ambitious, artful disc is emotionally wrenching yet deeply rewarding. One imagines Hardin would approve.