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Notes Campfire

by Souled American

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1.
Well I can guess my night's wait While lifting it today I know I'll need my watch With the yellow second hand on it And every time I see That colorful blur tickin' I'll know it is time To wait another second A song before a voice A chance before a choice A lamp before a light Stuck with today before tonight A spool before a wind A found after a find A youth before a past At least before at last A song before a voice A chance before a choice A lamp before a light Stuck with today before tonight Stuck with today before tonight Stuck with today before tonight
2.
Set in 04:54
3.
Flat 08:04
one note wonder one note wise one note certain one note sigh sighed one note leader one note led one note savior one note said one note trumpet one note band one note presence one note sang be on your way beyond your truth beyond your love beyond what makes you do beyond you sooner or later flat sooner or later flat
4.
Born(free) 05:07
5.
Waterdown 08:45
6.
7.
Deal 07:05
8.

about

Eight songs originally released 1996 by Moll Tontrager Records and re-released on CD 1999 by The Catamount Company.

********************************************

Sarah Hennies, NPR, 15 June 2023
Where to start with country music weirdos Souled American? The end.

Like country music classics before, Souled American's 1996 release, Notes Campfire, is preoccupied with loneliness, longing and loss.

There are cult bands and then there's Souled American. In 1988, the Illinois group arguably invented "alternative country" with the album Fe. While the alt-country sound is widely recognized as Southern roots rock with an indie-punk sensibility largely defined by Uncle Tupelo's No Depression released two years later — Souled American's early music feels as if it was formed in a vacuum, inspired by the timestretching space of reggae. But over the course of the following decade, Souled American's music grew increasingly slow, insular and esoteric. Although Fe, Flubber and Around the Horn are inarguably more accessible, upbeat and even sometimes fun, if you've never heard this music before, it actually makes sense to start at the end.

Since the release of Notes Campfire in 1996, it's almost as if Souled American never existed: The band's albums have long been out of print, there have only been a handful of performances in the last 27 years (including the tiny towns of Laporte, Colo., and Centennial, Wyo.), there are no known live videos, and a long-running Facebook group of ardent fans boasts less than 100 members. Not for nothing, diehards have attempted to resurrect interest: In 1997, Camden Joy created the "Fifty Posters About Souled American" project (he ended up making 61); in 1999, tUMULt reissued Souled American's first four albums on CD; in 2006, The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle penned an essay about how Souled American's Flubber changed his life. Now, thanks to the efforts of longtime fan Tom Adelman (aka writer Camden Joy), the band's full discography is available digitally for the first time ever via Bandcamp.

Driven by guitarist Chris Grigoroff's plaintive guitar strumming and Joe Adducci's skillful but idiosyncratic bass playing (consistently described as sounding "underwater") — not to mention the duo's nearly identical voices — Notes Campfire and its companion Frozen are atmospheric, languid and strange evocations of country living.

It's a wonder that these songs work at all. The music is slow and loose with little regard for a consistent beat; the lyrics are poetic and frequently profound, but often cryptic and stunted. What ties it all together is the sound: Guitars twinkle and Adducci's bass slides and glides in and out of chord progressions in support of drawling, yearning and ultimately shockingly powerful voices. The eight-minute "Flat" burbles and gurgles along, always moving forward but going nowhere, evoking the landscape and feeling of their home in southern Illinois. Album highlight "Born(free)" spends most of the song repeating one line: "There's no love at all." On "Deal," Grigoroff sounds so beaten down ("The weight on me / I'm so weary") that he can't even sing in complete sentences. It's here that the band strays from Hank Williams; Souled American's narrators aren't so lonesome they could cry, they are loneliness itself.

From the very beginning, the band members seemed to have the foresight that they would shrink and turn in on themselves. When Jamey Barnard left after the third album Around the Horn, Souled American simply continued as a trio with no drummer. Same with guitarist Scott Tuma — who, as a solo artist, has a sizable discography of folk-infused atmospheric music — when he split in 1996, Souled American became a duo. Reportedly, Grigoroff and Adducci have been working diligently on the follow up to Notes Campfire ever since. In a 2009 post to the Facebook fan group, Adducci's wife gave hope to its tiny but rabidly obsessed fan base: "They are working on it."

Like country music classics before, Notes Campfire is preoccupied with loneliness, longing and loss, but also shares a title with the perky opening track of Souled American's debut album that begins, "I heard about your love, so you're alone today." Notes Campfire gives the impression that we've arrived back at the beginning and also reached the end. Where does the band go if they've turned inside out? What comes after when nothing is left? We've been waiting more than a quarter century to find out.

Sarah Hennies is a composer based in upstate New York. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Bard College.

credits

released June 14, 2023

All songs by Souled American
Chris Grigoroff, Joe Adducci, Scott Tuma
"All My Friends" written by Vicki Adducci

Produced by Souled American
Jeff Hamand and Clark Hayes

Recorded and Mixed in Chicago
Mastered by Ken Love/Souled American at Mastermix
Art: Randy Vickers

Scott Lucas drums on tracks 6, 7
Brian Smith guitar track 6, trumpet track 7

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Souled American Chicago, Illinois

Souled American is a musical act begun in Chicago in late-1986 that played alternative country before that term existed, slowcore before that term existed, and ambient Americana (a term that never existed). Originally a quartet, drummer Jamey Barnard left in 1992, followed by guitarist Scott Tuma three years later. The founding singer/songwriters Joe Adducci and Chris Grigoroff remain. ... more

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