Sometimes music emanates from unexpected places. Zephaniah Ohora, in this case, delivers one of the most classic sounding country albums this side of Nashville, Bakersfield, Austin, or any other likely place you’d care to name. These are 21st-century songs about urban landscapes with an authentic classic country approach, played by a multi-generational band assembled by Ohora and the late guitarist singer-songwriter Neal Casal. As such, this represents one of Casal’s last projects. Ohora’s voice evokes Merle Haggard’s so it is only fitting that they tapped Norm Hamlet from Haggard’s band along with Mickey Raphael from Willie Nelson’s band. In addition, there are three of Casal’s long -time associates and some of NYC’s best players such as Jon Graboff on pedal steel and resonator. There are 14 listed in the credits backing Ohora.
This is Ohora’s second album, having turned the heads of many country-leaning Americana artists with his debut, This Highway. It was at the album release party for that one when Ohora met Casal and eventually began to work on the album with the players they had recruited. Working from a Brooklyn studio, they laid down a dozen tracks in just four days and took another week to add the finishing touches. Mixing completed at the end of April 2019 and Casal passed unexpectedly just a few months later, in August 2019.
Ohora originally hails from a deeply religious New Hampshire family and began playing music in church. He moved to NYC in his early twenties and began collecting old classic country records, a fascination that led to performing both original songs and covers at a small bar in Williamsburg. Soon he as booking the club and when the owners opened another nearby location, his activity level expanded. The new joint, Skinny Dennis, became the epicenter of a revitalized country scene in NYC (with Manhattan’s famed Rodeo Bar having shuttered down years ago) and Ohora booked acts and performed with some of the best instrumentalists in the city, some of whom appear here.
The plucking strings and pedal steel introduce the joyous opener, “Heaven’s on the Way,” a celebration of small moments and little gestures that often go unnoticed but are key to defining relationships. “Black & Blue” takes a different tact, chronicling how it is loving someone who is as stubborn as you are. Ohora set out purposely not to write about doom and gloom, although an album of this type certainly needs the tear in the beer songs of which there are a couple. He was not in a relationship when writing the record, so the tunes come from an observational rather than an autobiographical viewpoint. You’ll hear the wistfulness in “It’s Not So Easy Today,” which is a dead ringer for that Haggard sound. Nostalgia takes hold on “When I’ve No More Tears to Cry,” bolstered by the choruses of vocal harmonies.
Two of the strongest tunes, come mid-album, first with “All American Singer,” which may best capture the spirit of the album as he sings about the power of music to bridge generations and politics, race, and religion. It’s almost the antithesis of Merle’s “Are the Good Times Really Over.” The title track continues this theme with lines such as these – “Let the singer sing a song and a guitar pay the chord, I’m right where I belong to the glory of the song,” reflecting on the nostalgic days of listening to the radio but also expressing the content for his current state of mind.
There are the requisite references to New York too, most obviously on the subway anecdotes that pepper the careening, bouncy “Riding the Train.” “Living Too Long” jabs at gentrification. Yet, most of the themes are universal in nature and not unlike most country albums. The ballad “We Planned to Have it All” is that tear-jerker referenced earlier, a beautifully constructed song that does find hope, making peace with loss and change. “You Make It Easy to Love Again” toasts the happiness found in second chances. The yearning “Emily” has the protagonist reaching out sincerely rather than burying himself in despair. The shuffle “Time Won’t Take Its Time With Me” captures both the routines and joys of daily life, as if to say –‘make the most of the moment’, complete with a Haggard-styled yodel, a fitting conclusion to this marvelously well-crafted album.
Photo by Meredith Jenks
