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DAN PETERSON
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ason Molina, both solo and through his
groups Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric
Co., could be one of independent music's
most prolific songwriters. In the span of
11 years, he has released nine full-length
Songs: Ohia albums, one live album and two full
studio albums since Songs: Ohia evolved into
Magnolia Electric Co. in 2000, two solo albums
and roughly 20 EPs, singles and other assorted
in-between-album releases.
Molina himself says he's used to finishing en
tire albums in three days—sometimes with some
in-the-studio songwriting included in that short
span of time. So maybe his fans should have
seen a project like Sojourner, his new release on
Secretly Canadian, coming alt along. But it's still
an impressive achievement, even by Molina's pro
lific standards.
Sojourner is a box set of entirely new mate
rial It features one CO, Nashville Moon, recorded
with the Magnolia Electric Co.'s touring band. A
second CO, Black Ram, finds Molina collaborating
with a variety of musicians—including producer
and sometime Athenian David Lowery of Cracker
and Camper Van Beethoven fame—whom he
had never even met before the sessions. A third
CO, Shohola, captures Molina performing in a
solo acoustic session, while an EP called The
Sun Sessions comes from a single post-midnight
recording session at the legendary Sun Studio in
Memphis. Then to top things off, the Sojourner
package includes The Road Becomes What You
Leave, a 0V0 that documents a tour through
Canada by the group.
A ll in all the box set represents a mother
lode of musical output from a period of
only about 18 months—a time span that
also saw Molina release a solo album in 2006,
called Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go.
Even Molina seems impressed by what he has
accomplished, openly wondering how he'll be
able to follow up something so substantial as a
box set. "I really sort of set myself up an inter
esting trap by putting out a project like this," he
says. The Sojourner project started out with the
Nashville Moon session at the Chicago studio of
respected alternative rock producer Steve Albini.
And while Molina initially thought the session
might produce the next Magnolia Electric Co. CD,
he soon realized it would be part of something
far bigger, as he continued to turn out songs
that seemed to belong together.
Eventually, a framework for Sojourner began
to take shape with each of the three full-length
CDs showcasing Molina's music in a different way.
"It's really the first time, I think, that I'm get
ting close to the way that I want to present the
music, where it shows all of the different ways
that I'm happy doing this kind of music," Molina
says. "I like to perform with just guitar and voice
or just piano and voice. I like the more tradition
al country elements sometimes, and then I also
like the more abstract and psychedelic and sort
of gray areas that I explore on Black Ram"
T he Nashville Moon CD was an attempt to
capture the live sound of Magnolia Electric
Co. by recording the songs immediately
following a summer 2005 tour. "More than 90
percent of that material was music we took on
the road," Molina says of the songs, which were
recorded live in the studio, complete with his vo
cals. "We toured extensively for weeks and weeks
and weeks, and I really had grown to appreciate
the arrangements as they stood. To me, it was
really important to get into the studio as soon
as that tour ended, so we could have the closest
interpretations to the live performances as we
could get"
This live-in-the-studio recording approach on
Nashville Moon captures a good bit of the live
Magnolia Electric Co. experience, while unveil
ing -such first-rate tracks such as "Montgomery,"
"Lonesome Valley" and "Hammer Down" that
showcase the group's sweetly burnished country
rock sound (think /Vorvest-styled Neil Young or
Son Volt as reference points).
Where Albini served essentially as a recording
engineer, simply documenting the performances
by Magnolia Electric Co. in his studio, Lowery
was involved on a deeper level in the recordings
that emerge on Black Ram—including being one
of the musicians who plays on the songs.
"I would call him more of a 'produced because
he took my idea to come to a studio to work
with musicians I had never played with before,
that I'd never met before, and basically write in
the studio a record," Molina says. "So David was
instrumental in getting me musicians who were
very open to working on the fly, musicians who
were open to changing things even if they felt
like what they played was really successful, just
try it again from a totally different angle."
Black Ram offers some of the most intriguing
music on Sojourner, as the disc moves from the
atmospheric touches of "Will-O-The Wisp" to the
stark and bold rock of "What's Broken Becomes
Better," and then from "In The Human World" to
desolate piano tune "The Old Horizon."
W hen recording the Shohola CD, Molina
followed an approach he likes to use to
inject an element of risk into recording
solo. Essentially, he takes an already completed
song and forces himself to try a totally untested
approach when he records it "Like, I'll maybe
have written the song on dulcimer, but then I'll
just force myself to record it on a guitar, even
though I haven't totally changed the arrange
ment and I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to
do it" he says. "So when I do these recordings,
every sort of second is truly dangerous because
I'm not exactly sure how the vocal melody is go
ing to land... I put all of these challenges up for
myself when I'm doing the solo recording.
'I think lyrically that session is very strong,"
Molina says. "I think it's a lot of challenging ma
terial personally challenging material"
For the most part, the sparse setting of
Shohola works just fine, as songs like "The
Spell," "Steady Now" and "Night Country" boast
vocal melodies that stand strong in the austere
and intimate solo setting.
The Sun Sessions EP contains only four songs,
but it represents a special moment for Magnolia
Electric Co. On a tour stop in Memphis, Molina
arranged for Magnolia Electric Co. to play a gig
in exchange for studio time at Sun Studio, where
Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash,
among others, recorded some of their early hits.
Because Sun Studio operates as a museum during
the day, it's available for recording only late at
night, which meant a midnight studio booking.
"We came up with an EP worth of tunes that
I think are very strong, and I think that we got
more than what we would have ever anticipat
ed," Molina says. "I think we all left there feeling
like we had really done something special."
W ith Sojourner having arrived in stores
in early August, it's no surprise to hear
Molina say that the current Magnolia
Electric Co. live set leans heavily on songs from
the box set. But, he noted, there are fresh twists.
"The way some of the songs are presented
on the box set we've tinkered with and changed
around, changed the arrangements and instru
mentation," Molina states. "That makes [the
band's shows] really exciting from a musical
perspective."
Alan Sculley
—
WHO: Mainolia Electric Co.,
Tbe Watson Twins, Drafckir Sauna
WHERE: 40 Watt CM
WHEN: Saturday, SaptaoWar 22
HOW MUCH: $1 (advance), $10 (door)
V /
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SEPTEMBER 19,2007 • FLAGP01E.C0M 31