album review: "river fools & mountain saints" by ian noe

Sometimes you find a debut that comes right the hell out of nowhere and shocks anyone who gives them a proper chance - and while I could argue 2019 had a decent number of those, and in country it feels like there’s so much untapped talent that flies under the radar, Ian Noe was one of the big ones. His project Between The Country might seem like a darker-than-expected indie country project, until you realize the depths of empathy and intensity that filled every crevasse… and that’s before you realized how dark it could really get. Of course there was the major factor of Dave Cobb giving him stellar, balanced production that most indie debuts will never see, but you need to make quality with that sound, and Ian Noe proved that he could do it.

But following it up would be a different story. Dave Cobb was not on the boards this time, instead with production handled by Andrija Tokic, who has done some work with Caitlin Rose and Hurray For The Riff Raff that I would respect, but it did mean that I was going to temper my expectations a little here. Yes, Ian Noe is a terrific presence and a great songwriter, but production can make or break a lot of country, especially the sounds that call back to the past, which has been a hallmark of his sound. But hey, I did have expectations - this guy made one of the best country albums of 2019 that’s aged amazingly well, and I wanted to see him deliver one hell of a follow-up… so what did we get?

Well, have to be honest here, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster for me going through this project, because initially I was not pulled in, and for the exact reason you might expect given my preamble. But then I let myself sink into the vibe and gave it more listens and I was right back onboard again with this being one of the best country albums I’ve heard in 2022, where even if it cooled on me the consistent strengths were so readily apparent that it would be worth hearing regardless. And yet that was two weeks ago, where I had plenty of opportunities to put out this review but I wasn’t as motivated or excited, especially in comparison with Between The Country, so I went back to give it more listens and I’m still confident that this is legitimately great… but it’ll take a little while longer for its hooks to get into you - it’s a slower burn, and while it’s still quite tremendous, it’s not better than his debut and that can be a little tough to contextualize.

And as such, while I’d normally start with the shift in production, I wouldn’t say that’s the primary culprit with this project, which I’d argue has a more varied and even in some cases more melodic and textured palette in comparison with what Dave Cobb gave him, which at some points could feel haunted, lean, and brittle to a fault. And while that worked for many of the shockingly bleak moments that coloured that album, this project naturally plays a little brighter and more approachable, which can downplay Noe’s intensity but also lets him flex the wry wit and subtle flair in his nasal drawl that pulls comparisons to the late John Prine. That also means it naturally feels a bit more contemporary, and you can sketch more comparisons - it’s not like we’re short on singer-songwriters these days writing melancholic music about the wildest ranges of Appalachia, where coal mining, isolation, poverty, and failing systems cause good men and women to seem a bit unstable, look to Pony Bradshaw or Cole Chaney or Tyler Childers or Zach Bryan. That unfortunately means that Ian Noe has a little more competition in his lane, but I’d still argue his sound and approach stands out, mostly in regards to writing but also tone: he doesn’t feel as hard-nosed or defensive in his framing and approach to these stories, nor does he glamorize them either, and while there are plenty of scenes that can get just as grisly and intense when you start peeling back the layers, the wide-angle framing allows for a more interesting moral complexity to a lot of these stories, which puts him in a different tier. There might not be much hope in what he sketches - just a fool’s hope, but that’s hope nonetheless, and in the face of a world changing beneath his characters’ feet or spiraling wildly out of control, he’s going to test that hope and push it to the brink, see what really holds them all together.

But again, it’s a slow burn - this is an album that’s going to take its time pushing and prodding at these points, where some have drawn parallels to how the isolation on these tracks have mirrored the pandemic the past two years, where the concept of time gets even more fragmented; hell, it’s probably not intentional, but if you’re looking to reinforce a quiet parallel current of empathy to folks who might not otherwise relate to rural Appalachia, this would be a way to do it. And while at its most basic you get the family snapshots of the two songs that compose the title track, one male and one female, it expands from there to some interesting character portraits, like the singer-songwriter left behind by his girlfriend who then proceeds to self-destruct on ‘Lonesome As It Gets’ where he sets fire to his own Christmas tree, or the stunning album centerpiece of ‘Ballad Of A Retired Man’, where an old Vietnam vet is reaching the end of a long life and catching flickers of vivid memory. And there are more songs from a veteran’s point of view: ‘P.O.W. Blues’ is probably the track with the most rock-leaning snarl and is exactly what it says it’s about, but the one that impressed me more was ‘Tom Barrett’, telling the story of the kid who leaves those Appalachian towns to go overseas and fight in wars, encounter scenes just as grim if not moreso, and then winds up returning home, even as he could have sworn that time would have taken this town like it has so many others.

But that’s an interesting thing with Ian Noe’s music: he’s so conscious of how the passage of time bends around scenes like these, where it inexorably moves and it’s fascinating watching those caught in its wake versus those who dig in among what’s left. You get the coal mining scenes of ‘Strip Job Blues 1984’, but how much has that really changed in the mountains, or those caught in the flash floods in Kentucky on ‘Road May Flood / It’s A Heartache’, or the aging tour group constantly searching for that next spark on ‘One More Night’, or in the darkest case the Indigenous story of ‘Burning Down The Prairie’ when avaricious Europeans moved in with the real savagery. Or hell, if you want to get explicitly on the nose with it, ‘Appalachian Haze’ is a family scene where some think that new development will save them, some will push back, and some are too consumed by their own vices to engage with either. Now in comparison with the previous album, the violent immediacy is not here - in another parallel with a lot of pandemic records, Ian Noe is comfortable with you sitting with the album to really soak it in. But the flip side to that is not so much dating the music to a specific time - mostly because Noe’s sound feels almost timeless in its choice of tones and his style of writing - but in lowering the volume of intensity, it’s one of the reasons it might not pull you back in the same way.

Granted, whenever you do go back, the majority of the instrumentation and production is striking as all hell - with the exception of the start and ending. Yeah, I was not wild about how weirdly flat the vocal mixing sounded against the drippy pedal steel and that lead melody sounded on ‘Pine Grove (Madhouse)’, and ‘Road May Flood / It’s A Heartache’ plays maybe a little too slow for its own good, even if the pedal steel, piano, arranged strings, and gentle smolder was a nice touch, but outside of that, I was shocked just how well these richer arrangements worked for Ian Noe all the same. I have a few quibbles here and there - the main vocal pickups feel a little rough on ‘River Fool’ and ‘Strip Mine Blues 1984’, for instance, but the fiddle and fiuttery picking sound just incredible and Noe bringing in some added backing vocals was absolutely the right choice, the uptempo bass playing off the pedal steel on ‘Lonesome As It Gets’ can’t help but make me smile, the shuffling knock off the lead acoustic line and organ on ‘Tom Barrett’ is excellent, and when Noe clears away the mix to feel as spacious as possible like on ‘One More Night’ and ‘Ballad Of A Retired Man’, he can command your attention like no other, and I loved the gentle horns he brought to the former and even fragmented samples that he brought to the final verses of latter. But all things considered, those are songs that have a deeper core of optimism - when Noe goes darker and minor key for the second half of the album, leans into that intensity, you get the simmering pianos of ‘Mountain Saint’, the scuzzy patter of ‘Burning Down The Prairie’ with that kickdrum keeping pace, and the cavernous darkness of ‘Appalachian Haze’, with the pedal steel pealing through the blackness. Strangely, for as much as ‘P.O.W. Blues’ picks up a bit grit and muscle, it almost plays a bit too conventional to southern rock - don’t get me wrong, it’s well balanced in the low end and the fuzz guitar works, but give the lead guitar a little more muscle to match the bass and this hits a lot harder.

That being said, if he had done that the song might stand out like a sore thumb on this project, and going through River Fools & Mountain Saints, it flows incredibly well and feels pretty damn cohesive for its effort. In a way, I’m not surprised Ian Noe went in a direction that feels more expansive, measured, and accessible that maintains a pretty solid edge - a lot of indie country acts follow that arc, and Noe’s writing, performance, and command of atmosphere is still top notch. I think the best moments of Between The Country keep it on a slightly higher tier, but even then that’s one of the best albums of the last decade, and would be extremely tough to follow up. This… extremely respectable effort that might be an easier introduction point that his debut, absolutely worth the purchase on vinyl if you can find it, and for everyone else… Ian Noe is two for two with textured, incredibly immersive and well-balanced indie country; if you haven’t checked him out yet, he’s absolutely worth your time.