Nathan Mongol Wells is better known as the frontman for outlaw-country-garage-rock outfit The Ottoman Turks, but releases his debut solo album `From A Dark Corner` this month.
The album opens with `Beulah Land` a song about loss, about a friendship falling apart and hoping this separation is mended even if it`s in Beulah Land, a place according to Bunyan in Pilgrim`s Progress of peace near the end of the Christian life, on the border of the Celestial City. The number itself is a reflective piano driven bar ballad with a hint towards Tom Waits in its delivery. We have a much faster paced country-tinged offering to in `Juarez`. Where a planned excursion to this large Mexican city in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert is planned where the narrator is intending to cause havoc. There`s some delightful lead guitar riffs shared throughout this composition.
`In Years` is a further slice of Americana which looks back on times gone by and has some wonderful piano and pedal steel tinges throughout that really adds a sense of poignancy to this number. In `Rather Go To Hell` we have a track that really embodies the old adage “same shit different day” and paints a picture of having to endure a manual come hard labour job, day in day out. A mid paced foot tapper of a number.
`Taken For A Ride` is an introspective melancholic piece that the singer has said was written about “the turmoil of making promises you can’t keep and figuring out what you want.” We have an amusing tale of `can`t live with them but can`t live without them` in `Two Heads` an account of a relationship that`s maybe run its course of true love.
`Knew You` is mournful reflection on a romance where a physical separation is a source of heartbreak to the participant whose left behind. The lyrical content and musical presentation really draw you into this dilemma and has you empathising with the narrator`s plight. We have in `Honest Drinking` a straight up, old time country song that relates to the risks and hazards of alcohol abuse.
`Road To Hell` races along and relates to the joys of life on the road for a touring musician. The album closes out with `First Day It’s Warm` which references the elementary school the young band lived across the street from. Paying their bills with weekly plasma donations and playing wiffle ball while drinking Evan Williams bottles in the front yard, the school bell was sometimes their only sense of time. A stripped back reflection with strummed guitar, vocals, and some backing harmonies.
Nathan was aided and abetted with a number of supporting musicians to bring his vision to life with Chad Stockslager (organ, piano, wurlitzer), Steve Berg, Charlie J Memphis, Chad Stockslager, James Driscoll , Billy Law (bass), Trey Pendergrass, Ryan Muller (drums), Hank Early, Marco Bartolome (pedal steel), Nik Lee (lead guitar), John Pedigo (theremin, mandolin, lead guitar, background vocals) ,Joshua Ray Walker (backing vocals)and Drew Chapa (piano).
`From A Dark Corner` is an interesting offering that is fairly country tinged but does have a couple of diverse numbers sprinkled within. Nathan has a deep, rich and varied vocal range and the lyrics relay a very pictorial image on a variety of themes. `From A Dark Corner` is a release that I feel is a grower and will offer up something different each time you return to listen.
Rating 8/10