Jimi Patterson Photo
Elison Jackson.
“Wal-Mart,” the last song on Elison Jackson’s newest release, Silver Sounds: Hallucinations, holds its breath for a minute and 17 seconds. First there’s a just a warm organ, like you might hear in a little church, or a funeral home. Then a sound that takes a few seconds to identify as a cello, played simply. Then Sam Perduta’s voice, as plaintive as it’s ever been. “Saw God in a Wal-Mart,” he sings. “Saw Death on the avenue / When you kissed Sister Mary / you just did what you had to do.”
“Earth is crammed with heaven,” the verse ends. “What on earth you want to go there for?”
Then there’s a hiss from the cymbal, and the guitars and drums crash in, stately and expansive. The song widens until the end, even when the arrangement falls back to just the cello and organ that started it all. They seem much bigger than they did before.
Elison Jackson celebrates Silver Sounds, its eighth release since the group formed in New Haven in 2010, Wednesday night at BAR on Crown Street. It has reason to rejoice, as Silver Sounds is its most assured recording yet.
The band has always rested on Perduta’s songwriting and unique voice, a good move; there’s a reason that Elison Jackson won the New England Music Award for best singer/songwriter in 2015. Perduta’s songs are a modern version of the Old Weird America, the stranger side of American folk music, that has sustained a certain part of the popular culture since Dylan. The band’s sound — what it calls “stoner soul” and garage rock — is likewise both decades old and of the minute, gritty and sweeping at the same time. The wide open spaces in Elison Jackson’s music are filled with dust, and we’re in a car that’s driving fast, but rattles a lot along the way.
On Silver Sounds, though, the group — Perduta on guitar and vocals, Greg Perault on bass, Mark Sev on drums, Dan Hollenback on keys, and Ilya Gitelman on guitars — has distilled the intentional sloppiness of its previous releases into a more focused sound, giving the album a real sense of groove. The bluesy hook on “Ghost F*ucker” is anchored by a deep swing. “Thru the Trees,” “Everybody’s Hung Up on Somebody,” and “Fallen Down the Stairs” have that rock strut, and “Wal-Mart” gets anthemic. These strong rhythms give the band more room to roam. It pushes farther, changes textures, introduces swooping slide guitars and walls of distortion, and creates moments of real quiet, when it’s just Perduta’s voice and the backbone of the beat, still ably propelling things along. It’s the group’s most exciting record yet.
Silver Sounds is thus a great introduction to a band that’s already made a name for itself regionally and is poised to grow even more. Keep your eyes peeled on the group’s Bandcamp page to find it, or delve into their back catalog. Or to pick it up quick, go see Elison Jackson tonight at BAR, and hear where the band is right this minute.
