[rating=7.00]
During a break from recording and touring, Acoustic Syndicate’s trademark patchwork of bluegrass, rock, jazz, and reggae must have still been evolving somehow. After semi-disbanding in 2005, the band began playing shows again a few years later. It seemed for a while that playing occasional southeastern shows would be whole of the band’s future. Then, in 2010, new songs began creeping into set-lists and the band began a new era. The culmination is Rooftop Garden, their first album since 2004, and it is at once a fresh start and a continuation of what the band has always done well.
The passage of time, dedication to other interests (family, farming, and software engineering for instance) and newfound musical freedom helped the band create their most personal album yet, which is remarkable. All of the music in their 15-year history has a distinctly human touch, with topics like sustainability, the frailty of existence, love, and community. Rooftop Garden is somehow more immediate because of where the band now finds themselves musically: with no one to please but themselves and an even broader range of life experiences from which to cull material.
The album’s ten focused and thoughtful songs are split between songwriting cousins Steve and Bryon McMurry, but the overall sound is the sum of multiple parts. Bassist Jay Sanders has been perhaps the most propulsive force of change in the band, and his current rig is more “mission control” than modest. Opening track “Heroes” is buoyed by an undercurrent of his Moog effects. Billy Cardine’s dobro fills the role that saxophone used to occupy in the band, jazzing up the spaces between Bryon’s guitar or banjo and Fitz McMurry’s steadfast drumming. Steve McMurry is, as always, the rock of the band. His magical guitar style and valley-filling vocal work are two of the touchstones. One of the best songs he’s ever written, “Song For Me”, appears late in the album, and it’s wonderfully self-gratifying yet also profound.
The subject matter varies slightly from McMurry to McMurry. Steve tends to keep an “everyman” aesthetic with songs like the jaunty, location-checking blues delight “Memphis Girls” and working-class anthems “Forward” and “King For A Day”. Bryon is a bit more chimerical, offering tunes such as the loping, hopeful “Coming in From the Cold” and the idyllic “Bicycle Song”. In the end, the title track exemplifies the new state of Acoustic Syndicate – a little less country, a little more rock and roll, yet retaining the same endearing qualities of meaningful lyrics, flawless vocal harmonies and singular music.
