Stuart A. Staples – Leaving Songs

It is a safe bet that a telephone solicitor has never accidentally called Stuart A. Staples “miss” or “ma’am.” Like Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, and Lee Hazlewood, he possesses a voice of depth, resonance, and gravity. It lends an air of melancholy to whatever he sings, be it “Ave Maria” or “Mary Had A Little Lamb”. As the title of Leaving Songs implies, the ten originals here are full of bittersweet conclusions and new beginnings — i.e., ideal material.

With a sound that distinctive at its center, it would be easy for this disc, Staples’ second solo outing sans his band Tindersticks, to settle into a moody but monochromatic groove. Yet he and his cohorts (including players from Calexico and Lambchop) take pains to complement his voice with other timbres, both instrumental and human. Spaghetti-western brass plays a pivotal role in enlivening “Already Gone” and “Which Way The Wind”, while isolated, sustained guitar notes gracefully punctuate the solemn “This Old Town”.

Staples’ decidedly masculine pipes are best offset on two duets. “Is that your heart talking/Or just that befuddled mind?” queries Lhasa De Sela on “That Leaving Feeling”, poking at seams of Staples’ carefully constructed world of gloom. Even better is the weary “This Road Is Long”, on which Maria McKee opts to smolder rather than soar, as Staples lumbers agonizingly far behind the beat.

It takes a few spins to unlock the subtle charms of Leaving Songs, but once you do, you won’t part with it easily.