Micah Blue Smaldone - Hither and Thither
Tracklist:
- Swamp of the Swan
- Coal Black Crepe
- More Than I Can Bear
- Sporting Sorrow Blues
- Grim
- Summerbelle Winterbelle
- Tatterdemalion Stomp
- A Winter's Truce
- Funny Farm
- All Shut of You
- New Orleans Bump
- A Little at a Time
Micah Blue Smaldone’s Hither and Thither is an album that requires the listener to get into the proper mindset. Being the gentleman that I am, I will outline four necessary steps to achieve that aforementioned state of mind, and I will rank them in order from least to most difficult to attain. First, get yourself a tall glass of lemonade. Second, learn to whittle. Third, move to an old-looking house in West Virginia, one with a screened-in porch. Finally, get yourself a time machine and set the dial to 1921.
Smaldone’s plucky guitar and shaky tenor sound like an artifact, a long lost record in some collector’s basement, and it makes for one of the most honest and beautiful album to be overlooked this year. Immediate comparisons to Devendra Banhart can be made here, but where Banhart’s nasally vibrato can do little to avoid calling attention to itself, Smaldone’s voice is a soft summer breeze. Smaldone is light, warm, and gentle, both with his voice, and his guitar, the only two entities to occupy the space of the homespun sound.
The album opens with “Swamp of the Swan,” an instrumental piece that is interesting enough, however, the real magic begins on track number two, “Coal Black Crepe.” When Smaldone’s voice enters the picture, it doesn’t overshadow the old-timey guitar style, but accents it to an almost astonishing level. It’s easy to recognize that he and his guitar are perfect for one another. “More Than I Can Bear” is a toe tapping ditty, dancing along on perky strings and jaunting vocals. The songs that follow are all beautiful, often combining dizzying elements of backporch country, early 1900s balladry, and ragtime.
Of course, this is the main problem with the record. The songs are structured around guitar picking and Smaldone’s old-time vocals. All of them. This makes it difficult to really justify why certain songs are all that much greater than others. It also makes it difficult to judge certain songs to be all that much worse than others too, and what results is an album of startling consistency, maintaining the same brilliant, sauntering mood from start to finish. It’s safe to say that if you love the first two tracks, you’ll love the rest of the album, and if you don’t… well, there won’t be much saving grace.
Still, regardless of the ever-present similarity in songcraft, one can’t help but laud the triumphs of the album’s latter third. “Funny Farm” is a quick and quirky piece of Americana. “All Shut of You” boasts some touching lyrics, like this gem: “all shut of you / rubbed my hands and cried / for your love is the sweetest / thing that ever lived or died.” Smaldone’s voice reaches a nearly dreamlike quality as he ambles along the final lines. Album closer “A Little at a Time” shuffles the album to a bleary-eyed conclusion with somber guitar plucking and yawning vocals.
Hither and Thither is a photograph, dusty and yellowed, depicting rolling hills, bright skies and simpler times. It represents a style and a time that hasn’t been treated with this much care in decades. It is a soft, whispered homage to an oft-ignored era of American music, and it is disarming in its charm and sincerity.
-- Anthony Shook