Country-influenced Rock: Will Kimbrough's This and Home Away

Following last Wednesday’s Mindy Smith review and contest, it is only appropriate that today we take a look at Will Kimbrough—guitarist on many tracks on Mindy Smith’s One Moment More.

Will Kimbrough fronted his own bands in the 80s and 90s (Will and the Bushman; the Bis-quits). Yet, he is most prolific as a session player and support guitarist for many musicians—Jeff Finlin, Amy Rigby, Josh Rouse, Matthew Ryan, Billy Joe Shaver, among others. This extensive work as a sessionist leaves an impression on Kimbrough’s albums, This (2000) and Home Away (2002). [The newest album, Godsend, is a collection of songs written and recorded over the last ten years; it was not available for review.]

At first, saying that Kimbrough’s albums sound like a sessionist at work may sound like a barb. While Kimbrough’s work with many different artists has given his albums less cohesiveness of sound and direction, being a sessionist means that his roots-rock, Country-influenced Rock, is more wide-ranging.

Consider “This”: “Closer to the Ground,” is full-band roots rock; “Chimayo” is the pop-side of Crowded House (Folk-influenced American Rock); “Need You Now” has the foundation of a more pure Country sound, think Mary Chapin-Carpenter. And that’s just the first three tracks. With the first three tracks of “Home Away,” we’ve got more of the New Bluegrass sound bleeding through in “Piece of Work,” a country groove feel in “This Modern World,” and a hesitatingly beautiful ballad in “Champion of the World.”

Wide-ranging as they are, I can’t scare you off from these albums. On the contrary, I think Kimbrough’s got poetry and music melding together in one great alloy. He takes you through a musical catalog, showing just how many directions he might head. With a lesser songwriter, this would only end up sounding like an audition tape, a resume proving his ability to play whatever kind of style you needed when you got to the studio. With a lesser songwriter, I’d get frustrated with the diversity.

Instead, Kimbrough’s songs reach right into the self-effacing, self-reflecting heart. This isn’t a set of songs about how great life is when traveling the world, being called on by all of these great musicians. This is a set of songs about just how difficult life and love and work are. I love the chorus from “This Modern World,” “I’m just an old fashioned boy/Can’t get up for the downstroke/I don’t think that I can compete in this modern world.”

How can a guitarist who is hired for his guitar strumming say that he can’t keep up, can’t make the downstroke (or as I envision, the down strum, as if the modern guitar licks are just a little bit beyond what Kimbrough’s feeling like he can do)? Well, to tell the truth, I doubt Kimbrough’s having much trouble supplying what artists need in their guitar sound—not if his contribution to Mindy Smith’s album is typical. However, I supposed looking at his resume, Kimbrough does seem like he’s failing to keep up. The bands went away; his name isn’t well known; his solo projects get squeezed in between working for others.

However, as much as I know that artists need to attract more listeners to survive, I’d say that the problem isn’t that Kimbrough isn’t good enough for the modern world; the modern world just can’t seem to recognize songsmiths when they hear them. So do yourself a favor, empty out your amazon.com shopping basket, head over to Waxy Silver Records, and buy yourself some Will Kimbrough. So what if your friends think you’re crazy? They’ll ask you like they ask me, “How’d you find out about this guy? I never hear music like this.” When they ask, simply tell them that you’re forever searching out good music, music that goes beyond what the corporate think tank dictates. Tell them you heard about it from Music Spectrum. Tell them that Music Spectrum heard about it from the trusted source for new music—Paste Magazine .

Thanks to Joe at Waxy Silver Records for the review copies.