Justin Beckler Points to Redemption for Our Troubled Minds

Camp out with Justin Beckler for awhile, and you’ll realize that you’re surrounded by a forest of the blues. You may have been entranced by the flickering firelight of Beckler’s pop rock voice, especially on his previous album, Wake Up Process, but as you look up, blinded and dazed by the firelight, you gaze out into the dark woods and can see mountain men, Appalachian families, Mississippi Delta troubadours, Chicago working man bluesmen, and generations of Gospel singers.

Oh! My Troubled Mind, Beckler’s third album, invites that congregation out of the forest more often that 2004’s Wake Up Process, so that the songs crunch with the walking feet of the weary. Beckler’s guitar led the day in the past, and that’s no different with this album. Playing acoutics, electrics, and bass himself, the guitar sound is rhythmic, blues-flecked, often marching forward (carried by the drums of James Albritton and Noel Bisesti). Beckler invites the blues and Americana into the circle of light, but the songs remain Folk-influenced American Rock at the core.

It’s no surprise that the early 20th century blues and roots music has its influence on Beckler, since judging by his MySpace page, he counts as his friends, Son House, Charley Patton, Memphis Minnie, Tampa Red, and Blind Willie McTell. (Who is making those pages for those masters anyway?). As Beckler told me in a phone interview, “[The early 20th century Americana and roots music is] something that feels like home to me. I really believe to do anything that’s progressive you have to find the root of what you’re doing.” What Beckler has produced (literally) is definitely something that’s progressive while still carrying those echoes of the past.

“I set off to have an album of spiritual hymns,” Beckler said about making Oh! My Troubled Mind. And that’s why I wanted to talk to him about the music, because I see Gospel and redemption themes all over the place.

On the chorus of “Deliver Me,” Beckler sings, “Deliver me from these echoes in my mind/...I need love to make this day divine.” The cries come through the lyrics of “Desperate Need” which say, “I used to find redemption on the low side of the road but that’s just me, I’m in desperate need.” These themes go back to 2004’s Wake Up Process on the song “Where I Belong,” “This is where I belong, a step above and halfway through.”

I told Beckler that while it might not be intentional on his part, I hear his songs as true Gospel songs searching for a Savior. He emphatically agreed with the idea of a spiritual search.

This search for a Savior shows up in the “troubled” theme of the album. Beckler said that while holed up alone and writing, he had two songs called “Oh! My Troubled Mind.” One—now called “Shadow Bag (Troubled Mind)”—he describes as “a fast, bluesy, boogey song,” while the other which retains the title, he calls a “slow country ditty.” Realizing that both had a lot of the same words, but went in different directions stylistically, he decided to keep both on the album. The only way for that to make sense was to make it the title of the record. Meanwhile, the troubled theme shows up in the struggles in other songs as well as the phrase “troubled times” on “This Mountain.”

Laying out the troubles before the listener, the album’s hymns are searching for someone to offer relief. Beckler described his own spiritual search this way: “Throughout my childhood, I was never taken to church, wasn’t given that spiritual upbringing. I found that through music and creation.

“[For the album,] I went to themes that are Gospel. I’m a real big fan of all kinds of spiritual imagery. It’s a very religious album, but not a specified religion album. I want to bring people together and find common ground.”

The album finds common ground with the core message of the Christian Gospel which came to shape the Gospel music that influences (in part) the music Beckler delivers. That music sounds incredibly well-developed to my ear, but the self-critical Beckler says that it came out a bit wacky. For example, he mentioned “Freedom” with its “blues format, redemption theme, getting your vibe back,” and while recording it, he noticed that all of his “parts were swelling up to something, and the song naturally crumbled to pieces.”

That’s how the track ends in a sonic mess of unfinished chords, sounds, and business, but it fits the spiritual theme quite well. Our searches for answers seem to fall apart—especially since we often turn our spiritual searches into something like Beckler’s recording process which was done in a “state of extreme isolation.” Those searches will crumble without guidance from the outside, from above, from the Holy Spirit within.

Crumbling songs or not, Beckler is also showing a lot of promise as a producer with his Tough Mama Productions. I asked him if he had any dreams about producing someone, and he immediately said, “Emmylou Harris.” He’s not sure he could best Daniel Lanois’ recent work with the masterfully fine Harris, but he does just wish he could hang out with her. “I called her manager, and they respectfully declined,” Beckler said somewhat chagrined—either by the answer or by the fact that he actually made the phone call.

I say that Harris’ manager will rue the day Beckler’s offer was rebuffed.

Thanks to Justin Beckler for the review CD and taking the time to speak with Music Spectrum.