As usual, there have been many great albums come from artists that call Austin home. I recently enjoyed Tom Gillam’s latest, and am looking forward to Reckless Kelly’s soon to be released disc. A recent release that is easily one of the better “Austin albums” of the year is Graham Wilkinson’s Yearbook. This record is very Austin. As with many of the great albums that came from the Lone Star state’s capital, Wilkinson (Official / Myspace) doesn’t concern himself with boundaries and constraints of various genre labels. Rock, country, soul and even reggae and ska populate this album, to varying degrees of success. While the soul and R & B flavor the horns provide in “Sunrise” and “Mama, Protect Me” feel warm, vibrant and completely natural, it’s the ska-tinged “Boys and Girls” that ends up feeling a tad out of place in the scope of the album as a whole. It’s not a complete misfire, the track possesses the rough-and-tumble energy that one expects when bobbing to the rhythm of other ska numbers, it just feels shoe-horned into the otherwise cohesive and flowing collection.
The wide array of sounds and styles is likely influenced by Wilkinson’s travels around the world, earlier in his life. He pursued various non-musical interests, as he sought out meaning in the world. It was the death of his beloved and musically gifted brother in New York City that brought Wilkinson back to the states and led him to Austin. Wilkinson wasted no time in gathering quality collaborators. Hayes Carll and Alejandro Escovedo both lend a helping guitar to the proceedings. It is the duet with Carll, “Ragamuffin”, that most effectively shows Wilkinson’s touch with pedal-steel powered country shuffles, while “Let It Go” is an ideal harmonica-driven folk rock tune. Regardless of the genre or the sonic style, Wilkinson shows ample amounts of heart in each track, and creates an album that is far more than an “Austin album”, after all.
LISTEN: Graham Wilkinson – “Let It Go”
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