Southerly

Southerly’s, Krist Krueger’s nom de plume, résumé would be rather extensive if he wrote it out on clean white sheets of paper rather than within musical bars. Let’s start with singer, then add: songwriter, music arranger, recording engineer, label manager, booking agent and music critic. One can’t be critical of his love of music and his drive (literally – he drives from show to show constantly) to produce said music. The result? Storyteller and the Gossip Columnist, lush orchestral pop that has a taste of Elliott Smith, which isn’t all that surprising in that both have resided in Portland, the city that’ll soon catch Seattle in indie-music coolness.

Krueger, with fellow musicians Ryan Heise, Robert Bartleson, and Casey Montgomery, has created a solid sophomore effort (after the much-heralded Best Dressed and Expressionless) complete with organ and accordion, bass and strings. “Visage Sans Expression” is a glacially slow-moving tune that’ll shatter you with its cello and snare drum. It’s like a funeral cortège in a rainy day for a mariner lost at sea. “For the Speechless Coward” is a quiet, meditative, and beautiful song with tinkling guitar and bowed cello. Banjos are plucked. It’s the song for the kid at the dance wanting to tell the prom queen how much he likes her but can’t find the words. “Dreams That Make Men Free” starts with carousing drumming before thrusting into foot-stomping fun.

Southerly is good. His album sales should undoubtedly go northerly after smart listeners take a listen to the fourteen well-hewn tracks. Perhaps on Krueger’s résumé in the coming months it will say gold album, because that’s what it is, gold.