Delta Spirit

So many bands have stuck emo vocals and lyrics in a folk or roots-rock setting during the last few years that it's become a (still, thankfully, unnamed) sub-genre. That doesn't make it a good idea, of course, but ideas aren't The Delta Spirit's strong-suit. Even if singer Matthew Vasquez's voice were less grating and more convincing, the fact that he clearly has no stories to tell would have sunk the ballads and the Dylan rip-offs. The band behind him isn't bad, though, particularly when they're allowed to be busier and louder than he is. The founding members, Jon Jameson and Brandon Young, play bass and drums, respectively, and they dominate the most successful songs, like the harmonica-laden "Children," with drums the loudest thing in the mix before an unexpected coda of breaking-down guitar and ambience.

"Strange Vine" is a ballad, but nobody seems to have told Young, whose shambling, but persistently rock drum patterns give the song focus, making it an odd winner–helped by the fact that, on this one, Vasquez sounds enough like Paul Westerberg you can just pretend it's him singing. Other bright moments are the fittingly unpretentious "Trashcan," which actually reminds me of The Beatles' "Lady Madonna" with its jaunty piano. The album-ending title track, a mid-tempo stomper that finds guitars, organ, tambourine-pounded-drums, and vaguely Latinate horns all working together in top form for three-and-a-half minutes with Vasquez merely an after-thought, until most of it stops for the last few seconds and he's allowed to sum things up over just an acoustic guitar–like the worldly troubadour he isn't. Delta Spirit are a promising band who need to quit handicapping themselves with this guy sooner rather than later.

—Nate Cunningham
09.02.08

You can take the boy out of the emo but you can't take the emo out of the boy as Delta Spirit shows on its debut for the Americana oriented Rounder label. The ex-Noise Ratchet founders shift to more rootsy territory with their new band, yielding impressive results. Call it indie folk or anti-folk, there is no doubt about similarities to the Violent Femmes and especially the Waterboys, both in the predominantly acoustic instrumentation and Matt Vasquez's vocals. The album was recorded in a cabin in Julian, CA and perhaps the surroundings brought a raw, rootsy, almost Basement Tapes-styled feel to the stripped down songs and production. Opening slots for Dr. Dog and Cold War Kids established the quintet's punk/Americana credibility but this is more a ragged, emotionally charged yet skewed folk album than anything the bands they toured with churn out. There are elements of older Gomez here as well, especially concerning the members' multiple talents on various instruments and a strong sense of dynamics in the quietly surging, primitive percussion that drives "Children." The closing waltz-time title track feels like a cover of an old traditional, but like the rest of the songs, it is an original that hews to the style of an earlier time and place where the word "emo" was as foreign a concept as electricity. There are instances when this feels a little adrift and not all the songs resonate, but when they lock into a groove and a retro pop melody such as on "Strange Vine" or the following "Streetwalker," it meshes in an effortless, timeless, and intoxicating brew that shows the band's unique direction and future promise. ~ Hal Horowitz, All Music Guide