Cruz Contreras (photo by David McClister)
Cruz Contreras — the founder and frontman of The Black Lillies — brought a sweet keyboard with black and red keys to his No Depression Session at Jaan’s House during AmericanaFest 2023. Contreras treated us to two songs on keys and one on guitar, all three from his latest album, Cosmico.
First up is “Time Stand Still,” a song accompanied by the most ’80s pop synth-sounding tones he could muster from his keyboard. For me, the sound conjures mental imagery somewhere between the TV show Stranger Things and the epic rise and fall of Scarface’s Tony Montana. My brain adapts, and the keyboard tone quickly becomes part of the soundscape as the introspective lyrics push to the front, “Inspiration all around / Eternal here and now / Just let time stand still.”
The psychedelic production style on “Time Stand Still” and throughout Cosmico adds warm and fuzzy vocals, guitars awash in reverb, and inventive spatial effects. You’ll find throughout this ND Session that the songs work just as well, but for different reasons, in this stripped-back session with limited vocal effects and production.
Take, for example, the sonic textures heard on the studio recording of this session’s second song, “Flashing Light.” To me, the song sounds like it contains a nod to ’40s and ’50s doo-wop groups like The Platters and The Penguins (“Earth Angel,” et al.). The ND Session performance sounds like a contemporary Tennessee man — by way of Michigan — straightforwardly singing a modern song with a tip of the cap to another era. The studio album makes me feel like a future man found a dusty old 78 rpm record and put his future-man spin on a century-old song. Both excellent, different reasons.
Contreras trades the keyboard for his acoustic guitar to round out this session with “Road That Has No End.”
Find previous No Depression Sessions at AmericanaFest 2023 here, and look for more in the coming weeks.
