James Houlahan once again teams with Fernando Perdomo, Danny Frankel and Scarlet Rivera (Rolling Thunder Revue) on his sixth studio album Beyond The Borders, with songs that range from perseverance to edgy stories to hopeful beginnings. The Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter’s brand of mostly acoustic roots music allows bordering on folk allows for his stories to emerge clearly, sung in his soft-spoken, oft nasally, unvarnished voice. He combines traditional forms, simple melodies, and stark imagery that at times faintly and at others more directly echoes classic singer-songwriters such as Dylan, Waits, Young, and Cohen, none of whom were blessed with perfect voices either but developed unique styles. Heck, Houlahan even covers Young’s “Powderfinger” here. His musicians add mostly ethereal sonics and flourish in just the right places; never overdone or intrusive. He leans far more toward the stark and bleak but is equally capable of being buoyant when called for.
This is his fourth time working with Perdomo and Frankel and his second time with violinist Rivera. Perdomo co-produces with Houlahan and plays bass and keyboard. Frankel is the drummer and percussionist. Four others round out the cast – Joel Martin on pedal steel, Scott Doherty on keys, and Leann Skoda and Esther Houlahan on harmony vocals.
Emerging from the pandemic the first five songs search for resolve and initiative to move forward. The single “Back to the Start,” plays to a bed of pedal steel, insistent beats, caressing harmonies and an upbeat vibe as Houlahan sings, “sometimes there’s nothing left to say/in this fog of bad luck/I’ll take this battered heart/I’m going back to the start”. The gently strummed opener “Far From Me” is a simple melody with the kind of infectious chorus (“Far from Me, Far that somehow feels familiar. There’s a searching lyric in one of the verses that embody the album title. “Lonesome Love” is a syncopated acoustic blues with Rivera’s fiddle taking the place of the conventional blues harp. A chorus of backgrounds introduces “Merge,” which plays to Frankel’s tricky, offbeat rhythms while “Wave on Wave” is more ethereal, Houlahan singing in his hushed half spoken style.
The theme begins to diverge on the sixth track, “Through the Water.” This is where the boundaries between life and death come into play in story songs, some, like this one, inspired by other media. Specifically, this traces to the old Swedish film Through A Glass Darkly, wherein Houlahan puts his own stamp on images from the film. It has a really standard Neil Young-like chugging rhythm and stinging, reverberating electric guitar from Houlahan, making for a tough, rough-edged track. “The Ballad of the Lazy Preacher” is a gently strummed flat-out folk song, imbued with female harmonies and a few tinkling keys. “The Deep End” builds to a faster tempo, this one influenced by Houlahan’s affection for Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music and has a haunting Native American vibe and a stirring turn from Rivera’s violin. An acoustic version as opposed to the oft-heard Crazy Horse version of Young’s “Powderfinger” follows. While you may still prefer the original, it’s further proof that it’s just a terrific story song. He puts the poetry of W.H Auden to a bluegrass-styled reading in “O What Is That Sound” while the epic narrative “And the Horse Began to Dance” combines history and fiction in the story of Sitting Bull’s legendary horse, another standout with mesmerizing pedal steel from Martin.
Houlahan closes with the soothing “Bloom” and reaches his most positive stance with the breezy, percussive-infused up-tempo “You Are Free,” going out on a high note in an album where the bright moments balance out the darker, often more interesting story songs.
