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The Brag & Cuss

by Rocky Votolato

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Rocky Votolato is caught in a Catch-22. Crossing North America to play his music live, he misses his family--but that yearning for his Seattle home apparently works to stoke his songwriting. After touring behind his finest effort, 2006's Makers, the raw-voiced folk singer betters that mark on his fifth solo record, a travel kaleidoscope of a neverending road passing by the window. "I hear a train whistle blowing/And it's in key with my song," Votolato sings on "The Wrong Side of Reno," which finds him "searching no matter how many miles left until we get back home." The harmonica-led shuffle is one of several numbers that drift toward the country side of the ledger, with banjo, mandolin, accordion, and Hammond B3 providing the perfect backdrop for his forlorn, yet hopeful lyrics. While Votolato is staying in touch from a Southern filling station ("Postcard from Kentucky"), visualizing the years churning past ("Time Is a Debt"), and relying on a bottle to "kill the pain" ("Your Darkest Eyes"), you're in the seat next to him, and a couple turns through these 11 songs (with lyrics) will make the journey well worth it. --Scott Holter