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Things change when that old

Can I last 'til things change back?

With Louisiana as his base, novelist Tim Gautreaux simply writes what he knows. While he does not want to be referred to as a "Southern writer" (showing preference instead for being labeled "a writer from The South), his prose is keeping alive many of the tenets of Southern Literature.

In his 1999 novel "The Clearing" you do not only receive the feeling that he has been down these cypress-gnarled muddy roads before - you also feel the presence of his ancestors. As his protagonist, Randolph Aldridge rides on a steamboat through the dense territory of Acadian Louisiana; he leaves his dank cabin to visit with the captain. In his time there, Gautreaux pays strict attention to the sounds the pistons are making, how the captain switches from starboard to port, and more with great feeling and detail. As he points out in the book, Randolph is likely traveling on perhaps one of the last two steamships still in operation around 1923. Born in 1947 in Morgan City, Gautreaux's father was a tugboat captain and his grandfather was a steamboat engineer.

Gautreaux is interested in ordinary people. As he says in a 2013 interview on North Carolina ETV, "you can fill a trailer park with murderers and get a great story,"  but the question remains "Is it believable?" That essence of truth is what draws you closer to the characters he whittles out of this last bastion of Southern primordial life. When we meet Randolph (and his family), they could be the Carnegies, Morgans, or a dozen other prosperous Northern families. As narrator, Randolph is best at giving the unvarnished truth. He is charged with going to Louisiana and finding his brother Byron. Byron was a promising young man, who while traveling overseas, volunteered (at the "patriotic" behest of his father) for WWI only to return shellshocked.

His older brother was well educated, big, and handsome, and in spite of a disposition oscillating between manic elation and mannequin somberness, he’d been destined to take over management of the family’s mills and timber. Then he’d gone off to the war, coming back neither elated nor somber but with the haunted expression of a poisoned dog, unable to touch anyone or speak for more than a few seconds without turning slowly to look over his shoulder.

Gautreaux puts Byron in this position of "hero worship" in the family unit and then quietly brings him further and further down to earth. Charged with finding Byron and returning the Nimbus mill in Louisiana to more "efficient" work (a standard that symbolizes the influence of their father), Randolph's journey is less about self-discovery and more in line with confirming his suspicions that he was entering a territory of lawlessness and mistrust. Gautreaux writes this trip like Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," except Randolph is not discovering the beast within and Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying."  Gautreaux's Faulkner-ian point of view is far different. The more arduous the trip becomes, the more his foreignness to the inhabitants he is making inquiries to becomes evident in their reactions to him. It is not that his requests for telephones or horses are out of the question; after all, it is again 1923. However, it is that his suitcase and upper-class look are reminiscent of carpetbaggers and those who came to cheaply buy the land (and in turn, its residents.)

Gautreaux scales the entire lengthy trip with each new impasse revealing a layer of "civilization" stripped away. By the time Randolph gets to see his brother at the Nimbus mill where he is constable, Byron is completely different. In the land of "sun-killing cypress," Randolph finds him in a darkened room listening to records on his Victrola. After this huge buildup of their meeting, Gautreaux finds a wonderful sentence to introduce the "electricity" of their relationship.

When Randolph finally finds his brother, they shake hands. Not shaking but vibrating it like a man being electrocuted.

Gautreaux leaves so much room for the tension between them, the uncertainty of even who Byron is to either his family or this community and the foreshadowing of anything from alcoholism to death.

In Nimbus, Gautreaux switches gears in storytelling to a more mechanical, but still character-driven story that is similar to the modern Western. When Byron, again as constable, breaks a fight at one of the nightspots run by the Sicilians by killing one of the two mill workers about to brawl - entirely new levels of locality enter the fray. We are as clueless about their associations as Randolph is, so every new twist brings us closer to merely wanting to maintain a status quo in this chaotic land.

Finally, Gautreaux even finds a way to tie the events on this unsettled land together with history with all the poetry and beauty you would expect from a fire-lit memory of a grandparent imparting the past:

He remembered the 1700s when there were still Indians about. And how they did not understand the Acadians' yards. How they must not go into yards. They must not take one thing and leave another thing in its place without asking. The grandfather told that one night an ambush was prepared and an Acadian shot one of the red men who later died. The whole race of Indians on that upper part of the bayou told each other in one day of that one death. And some stroked their heads and some of the bravest cried like whipped children. Within the month, they were all gone from the region.

In small bits and pieces, "The Clearing" brings tragic events like this and others into clear view. Too often in history, and literature for that matter, we mythologize the common threads everyone knows. However, this part of Louisiana has its own storied history and no one to really tell its tale. "The Clearing" erects an archetypical casting of good and evil only to break down those barriers and show a class of humans merely trying to survive.

Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.

OZZY OSBOURNE - Patient Number 9

 [LP/DLX LP/CD](Epic)

The Prince of Darkness tries valiantly to work with the same formula on his latest album as he did "Ordinary Man." The good news: Ozzy has assembled one fantastic band including Josh Homme, Robert Trujillo, Chad Chaney, Mike McCready, Duff McKagan, Chad Smith, and the late Taylor Hawkins. Plus he called in some star power on guitar including Jeff Beck (his bending and squealing lighten the lumbering title cut,) Eric Clapton, old friend Zakk Wylde, and Tony Iommi (on the heavy blues of "Degradation Rules.") After over 50 years of rocking hard, Osbourne still has that great snarl and melodic sense - even if the songs try a little too hard to be more modern.

CHARLEY CROCKETT - The Man From Waco

[LP/CD](Son of Davy/Thirty Tigers/The Orchard)

On his second album of 2022, Crockett departs slightly from his blueprint for a classic Country sounding record of sagebrush storytelling. Augmented by deep organs, mariachi horns and the gentle wind of Texas swing, Crockett again displays his ability to squeeze into yet another branch of Country music history. The swooning title cut is arranged as if it were made for a Country spy thriller. While the clever "I'm Just A Clown" uses double-tracking and congas but never winds too far from the road that leads to Americana. Cut live to tape with his band The Blue Drifters, "The Man From Waco" is a surprising change of direction for an artist who has been consistent all along.

The EGOT is back with a double album of various adventures into the new strain of Hip-Hop flavored R&B. Legend's voice has not lost any power or edge, even if a key track like "All She Wanna Do" sounds a little too close to Daft Punk (yet is saved by a key change-pointing out what a good writer he remains.) "Honey" is a neat variation on Bedroom R&B that is far more sparse than usual. Muni Long's trilling hook is still no match for the dexterity of Legend's voice. The most promise is on the swishy rhythm-meets-throaty Soul of "Dope" which is aided by the blasting verse from guest J.I.D. "Legend" also brings out Rick Ross, Jazmine Sullivan, Jhene Aiko, Rapsody, and Ty Dolla $ign.

[LP](Forever Living Originals UK)

The British Soul/R&B collective Sault will forever be a mystery. Say what you will about the novelty of making releases only available for six months (but forever when you buy the physical copy.) "AIR" is the farthest out that perhaps any cutting-edge Soul artist has taken us in a while. Largely choral and vocal, "AIR" is layers of sound that make it hard to separate what is human from the electronics they employ. Thank goodness they have strings and a symphony. "Air" is a score just wanting to be used.  The heavenly voices, harps, and a French horn solo give it flight. "Heart" takes it even further adding a delicate harp, light bells, and warm brass. While "Time Is Precious" is like a vivid dream. Fresh from producing the best cuts on Adele's "30," Inflo and SAULT have now released six scintillating albums in just under three years. "AIR" is easily on the same level as Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders/London Symphony Orchestra last year with a dash of the daring of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On."

SON LITTLE - Like Neptune

[LP/CD](ANTI/Epitaph/AMPED)

Son Little has been one of those "Slacker Soul" artists that live outside of the regular realm and hope to catch a little glow from AAA Radio. However, honestly Little (or the more experimental Yves Jarvis for that matter) imply their soulfulness - in opposition to leading with it. "Like Neptune" comes from that slinky, homemade Funk sound of Seventies artists like Shuggie Otis. "Inside Out" and the standout "6AM" are actually written like Hip-Hop songs fusing rolling verses with hook-driven choruses. On "Inside Out," Little sounds more Blues-y than ever, while "6AM" uses its stops and woozy backgrounds to a similar effect as Steve Lacy. Little's voice in tandem with his own background generates an odd warmth, that is even further emphasized when he hits like a great line like "grinding gears into powder blues."

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