If i`m honest, I knew the name Jason Molina but not much else about this American musician, singer and songwriter who passed away over a decade ago. But sometimes there`s no better a way than a tribute album to allow you to discover what you`ve missed.
The album opens with indie rock come alternative country artist MJ Lenderman’s cover of `Just Be Simple` which is pretty close to the original and retains that deep sense of loneliness and a life lived although the singer is only in his mid-twenties. Boston`s trio Horse Jumper of Love share their interpretation of `Blue Factory Flame` with their wonderfully understated distorted guitar riffs giving the number a musical ghostliness to add to it`s almost bleak lyrical content.
A tinkling piano leads us into `The Dark Don’t Hide It` which has Dave Benton`s Trace Mountains flexing their muscles and giving it for me a more rounded reflective vibe. Austin Texas indie pop quintet Sun June share their illusory version of `Leave the City` a song that Molina wrote about moving away from Chicago. It has a real aching beauty about it.
Los Angeles indie rock musician Noah Henry Weinman whose stage name is Runnner creates a delicate less sparse but equally heart wrenching version of `When Your Love Has Gone` which really expresses the sentiment of resilience and strength. Sadurn from Philadelphia who have grown from a solo project into a band share a pretty faithful alternative country version of `The Old Black Hen`.
Chicago singer-songwriter Owen Ashworth who records as Advance Base gives us a pulsing version of `Everything Should Try Again` and although it`s not as stark as the original, Owens vocal delivery is every bit as poignant. Meg Duffy of Hand Habits gives us an almost ethereal version of `Lioness` with vocals that have just the right amount of tenderness and compassion for this spectral number.
`Whip Poor Will` is given a haunting workover from Baltimore`s Teen Suicide with steel guitar hues and acoustic guitar chords where you can hear the frets wail as fingers cross them, heartbreaking. Philadelphia indie rockers Friendship`s version of `Hard To love a Man` is so interesting with vocals that have such an understated keening huskiness over a steady restrained rhythmic backing.
`Shadow Answers the Wall` was released posthumously on Molina`s `Eight Gates` album and is given a reworking care of American indie rock musician Lutalo. It has a stripped back ghostlike almost spiritual slant. The final track `Farewell Transmission` come curtesy of Philly indie rockers Another Michael who create a version that grows in stature as it evolves.
There was so much to enjoy on `I Will Swim To You` and i`m sure long term fans will argue that a dozen tracks only scratches the surface of what this artist had to offer. For me it was an introduction to somebody who seemed to be a sensitive and introverted soul whose addiction to alcohol shadowed his last decade before succumbing to alcohol abuse-related organ failure at age of thirty nine.
Nevertheless this compilation opened me up to an unfamiliar artist and another dozen who will now also be on my radar. If you have an hour to spare this tribute will certainly fill a musical void and give you something to contemplate.
Rating 9/10
