Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird – These 13
Format: CD
Label: Thirty Tigers
Release: 2021
Release date: March 5, 2021
‘These 13’ is a little bit folk, a little bit gospel, a little bit bluesy, a little bit Hank, a little bit hill country, but most emphatically, it is all heart.
Andrew and Jimbo have climbed the height of their creative ladders in this collection of soul-strung songs, both lyrically and musically, a synchronicity between the two that feels joined in some special imaginative place that can only be visited by the best of songwriters.
I feel cleansed when listening to this album, exhausted by the sensory hustle of all the white noise, ‘These 13’ allows me to settle, to immerse myself in the serenity of original sound, written by original artists, delivered with a kind of feeling that makes you want to roll down the windows and ride or watch the sun go down or take off your shoes and walk across a muddy creekbank.
From the wonderful melancholy and soulful beginnings of “Poor Lost Souls,” to the old country echoes of “Burn the Honkey Tonk” to the getty-up and hope of “Sweet Oblivion,” this album moves me from one place to another with careful hands. In some ways, These 13 makes me wonder things I’ve always wondered about music – what the hell happened to it? But I think I know the answer. Nothing. Nothing has happened to it. It is right here. It lives and breathes with strings and keys and vocals, all stretched to their most hurtful and redeeming places. Nothing has happened to music except that you have to know where to find it, and Andrew and Jimbo are leading us to the place, right smackdab in the middle of These 13 is where we can all sit together and enjoy.
Tracks:
01. Poor Lost Souls
02. Sweet Oblivion
03. Encircle My Love
04. Beat Still My Heart
05. Red Velvet Rope
06. High John
07. Stonewall (1863)
08. Bright Sunny South
09. Bell Witch
10. Dig Up the Hatchet
11. Jack O’ Diamonds
12. Burn the Honky Tonk
13. Three White Horses and a Golden Chain