I actually had the pleasure of seeing Cory Branan live before I heard any of his recorded music. The new guy on Chuck Ragan\u2019s Revival Tour this year, Branan didn\u2019t waste any time making a name for himself wherever he went. A set of blues and spirited folk tales that often seemed made up off the top of his head, Branan\u2019s portion of the tour illuminated his knack for compelling and often comical storytelling, almost like an audio version of a \u2018choose your own adventure\u2019 book. <\/p>\n
With that said, when this arrived I was expecting more of the same. Long songs and talking mixed with singing and his lightning quick finger picking were on full display the evening I spent watching Branan, but to my surprise, Mutt <\/i>was a different experience. Though Branan works proficiently with blues, country and folk, his songs here seems less spur-of-the-moment. They are shorter and often shimmer with the sort of beautiful Americana that mirror Ryan Adam\u2019s best moments.<\/p>\n
While most songwriters of this genre tend to deliver albums with little variance between songs other than different chords or maybe capo use, Branan works his way through so many different styles here, it\u2019s nearly hard to keep up. \u201cSurvivor Blues\u201d early in the disc seems like the song Westerberg never penned, while \u201cDarken My Door\u201d is a song that Jeff Tweedy could takes notes on. The easygoing Tom Petty vibe is prevalent through most of this, with Branan sounding like a more gritty version of voices from the past.<\/p>\n
Though this is a sound commonly pursued by former hardcore heroes and previous punk rock enthusiasts, Branan clearly has found a niche entirely his own. His warm, soulful vocals and ability to play rowdy alt-country mixed with compelling balladry (\u201cSnowman”) is nothing short of stunning. Much like last year’s Crooked Fingers disc Breaks In The Armor<\/i>, this is a gentle gem that resonates with timeless grace and raw beauty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":31017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8884],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-42700","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-cory-branan","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42700"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}