[rating=4.00]
Aquatic Hitchhiker, the first release of new studio material from Colorado-based jamband vets Leftover Salmon in eight plus years, kicks off promisingly with the Little Feat/Dr. John style swamp funk of “Gulf of Mexico.” The opening lyrics, “Way down in Mississippi by the Gulf of Mexico,” sets the tone for the album. The visual imagery of most of the songs varies between grand old times on the bayou and a tough but satisfying life in the Appalachian wilderness, but is pure Americana through and through.
Although Leftover Salmon have always been grouped in with other jam bands, their roots lay more with The Band and Bill Monroe than the Grateful Dead and Aquatic Hitchhiker delivers a solid set of bluegrass, country, folk, funk and R&B, with a smattering of jazz and psychedelia thrown in for good measure.
The album’s heavy bluegrass influence, aided by the addition to the band of expert banjo picker Andy Thorn, becomes evident on the second number, “Keep Driving.” True to its name, the song is a short blast of bluegrass fury, with Thorn’s rapid-fire, complex picking moving things along at a fast pace, as the title song also features impressively fast and dexterous banjo runs from Thorn.
Other songs with a strong bluegrass feel include the aptly named “Kentucky Skies,” which name-checks bluegrass festivals, moonshine and even the legendary Monroe himself. And “Bayou Town” is a straight country waltz that despite the title sounds like something that could have been heard playing on a wind-up Victrola in a shack in the Tennessee foothills in the 1930’s.
Not every song on Aquatic Hitchhiker is pure bluegrass/country, however. The bouncy, breezy “Liza” is a party song that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Jimmy Buffett album (and echoes his who-gives-a-crap-lets-have-fun epic “Volcano”), and “Light Behind the Rain” features some great bluesy organ, plus a trippy instrumental interlude that is probably the most “jamband” moment on the album.
The one song on Aquatic Hitchhiker that sharply deviates from the overall tone is the last tune, “Here Comes the Night,” where the boys exchange overalls for leisure suits. With its dreamy opening guitar chords, chugging bass and 70s AM radio-ready lyrics such as “darkness falls, the magic comes around” delivered smoothly by singer/multi-instrumentalist Drew Emmitt, this song is decidedly more modern (in a retro way) and forward than anything else on the album. It just proves that Leftover Salmon cannot be easily pigeonholed into one category, but combine numerous different styles extremely well and even after more than 20 years can still deliver a musical curveball or two.
