Customer Reviews

Tall Hours in The Glowstream

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cotton Jones create music that sounds old and lived in: times spent wandering the backroads, the highways and byways, of America; times spent alone in the wilderness; times that seem out of our time and summoned from the past. Yet even though they are extraordinarily underrated and at the outset placed in the genre categories of "lo-fi", "indie folk", and "alt. country", they transcend these boundaries and are a rarity for our generation: a band which wears its heart honestly on its sleeve and stands on the shoulders of giants but does not steal from them like the majority of contemporary groups. They listen for inspiration in the dusty grooves of old records but their sounds are spontaneous and seem fitting for our era and generation.

On Paranoid Cocoon, a mellow moodiness and misty melancholy pervaded the album. These were songs for a late night loner. As frontman Michael Nau sings in the closing track ("I Am The Changer"), "I'm always a stranger." But the band showed they were so much more than just another lo-fi/indie folk/alt. country one-off with the deep atmosphere which seeped into every corner of the record--the spectrum ranged from bluesy, organ-driven opener "Up A Tree (Went This Heart I Have)" with a jazzy trumpet coda and spooky nocturnal voyage "Gotta Cheer Up", which sounded like the lost soundtrack to the riverboat scene in Night of the Hunter, to early morning rainy day meditations "Some Strange Rain", "Gone The Bells", and "By Morning Light".

If Paranoid Cocoon was, as the title suggests, about isolation and not feeling like you belong, hearing the train calling you off to distant lands, as the foreboding lyrics of wanderlust anthem "Up A Tree" give voice to, then Tall Hours in the Glowstream is about finding that sense of home and hospitality, even if only for a short time, even if the ghosts of your memories continue to haunt you and bring you to tears and despair.

Tall Hours in the Glowstream shapes this fascination with the past, with nature, and with instrumental atmospherics into an even more dazzling and diverse experience. Oceanic imagery is a recurring theme throughout the album, evident on the cover and in the lyrics: "It comes to me like sunbeams on the water", "Let the river roll on", "How sweet it would be to roll up on your shore", "Where the moon dripped milk beside the sea."

From the shimmering swoon of Nau and wife Whitney McGraw's intertwining vocals on opener "Sail of the Silver Morning" through the marching beat and fin-de-siecle waltz coda of "Glorylight and Christie" to the crystalline choral vocals of "Soft Mountain Shake" (which condenses the mountain magic of Fleet Foxes) and the horn-driven instrumental "Goethe Nayburs" (which sounds like a missing Morricone cut), Cotton Jones are certainly not in sophomore slump. Perhaps the standout song on the album, "Place At The End of the Street" best epitomizes their special evocative quality. Both personal and universal, the place is anyplace, another bored and restless night "waiting for something to do." Everything changes, of course, when love enters the scene. The poetic lyrics of the "wild exploding moon" and Nau meeting his lover in the morning on the banks of the glowstream are elevated to ecstatic heights by the perfect balance of folky jangling reverbed guitars, celestial vocal harmonies, and that classic rock'n'roll dreamscape.

It is truly cosmic American music.

The title of this LP/CD is apt. Not unlike spending a hazy day along a backwater river, somewhere unknown. It's lovely, really, and the harmonies dip beneath the water, resurfacing shortly for a little air. Highly recommended.

I went to Coachella in 2010 and happened to be staying at a local hotel in Palm Springs - the Ace. As I was nursing my hangover one morning/early afternoon from the Coachella festivities the prior day, the Ace had Cotton Jones play at the pool. They blew me away. They were cheerful and carried such a solid melody... I was quickly awakened from my headache and geared up to go. Of all the new musical discoveries I made at Coachella, Cotton Jones playing at the Ace was is one of my top. I started listening to them shortly after and it's become a favorite of mine. Buy this album, you will feel as if you discovered a treasure of gold.

Even if only one song on this album grabs you and won't let you go, that will be enough. "Somehow to Keep It Going" transcends music as you know it. I dare you to listen to it without getting moved by it. It is so quietly powerful. I had the opportunity to hear this band perform live at Port City Music Hall in Portland, Maine just recently and they were absolutely outstanding live in concert. There is no pretense here. These are true musicians who don't wallow in glory and fame, but stay devoted to their music. For this reason, they impart an intensity that you don't often find with more glamour and power-hungry bands. Just a beautiful, haunting sound that will leave a lasting impression on you.

i came across this release from a promoter who sent it digitally to me for on air play. i liked it alot right off the bat. in fact i liked it so much that even though i already had a copy digitally for free, i ordered it through amazon on vinyl. for me that's the mark that an album is good enough. i want to be able to sit in my living room and put it on the turntable and soak it in. this work by cotton jones is moody and lush with atmospheric charms. great songs that stick with you. i can say certain songs are my favorites like "Somehow to Keep it Going" or Man Climbs Out of Winter" but most importantly, it's good from start to finish. A Complete album that works throughout. You'll only have to get up once to flip the record over.

What a rare treat to discover the songs of Cotton Jones which simultaneously sound new and yet somehow hauntingly familiar. Like running across an old picture you haven't seen for years. It's not often one instantly connects to a song or a lyric. Sometimes it takes several listens but not so with Cotton Jones. At once warm and dreamy without seeming to try and make you feel that way. But this is no retread in it's familiarity. That's what gives it a newness all it's own. This is both an utterly new sound yet one for even those of us who are beyond body piercings and skinny jeans. It's what separates the pop, flashy music from those who are here for the long run. Spend an hour with "Tall Hours.." and see where you end up.