The dog chewed up my earbuds the other day. You’d think that’d be enough to make me decide to just shell out for a pair of studio headphones. I didn’t want to because I feel like attaching those giant bulky things to a teeny tiny device makes you look like a jackass.
I will gladly look like a jackass for Matt Woods. Especially if it means getting to his latest album everywhere I go.
Brushy Mountain hits the pavement exactly where The Matt Woods Manifesto left off. Oddly, the music is more jubilant even though the subject matter is more somber. Here we see Matt (or maybe just the narrator) questioning his decision to live the rock’n’roll life. There are also more commonplace stories of fading love (“Tiny Anchors”) and dying towns (“Snack Bar Mary & The Ten Pin Priest.”) The title track is yet another murder ballad, which Woods is disturbingly good at writing. This time we hear from a man explaining why he did the deed to his child.
Debauchery, self-reproach, defiance, and celebration — that’s the stuff I love in this kind of music and Matt has them all in spades on this album. This is truly one of the best of 2014.
West Texas Wind
Tiny Anchors
With Love From Brushy Mountain