Grayson Capps - If You Knew My Mind

A quick search for the “top Americana albums of 2005” reminds us of some fine records from that year by the likes of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Okkervil River, My Morning Jacket, and the ever-interesting Bobby Bare. One that didn’t get much attention back then was this excellent set of music from Grayson Capps, If You Knew My Mind, released a decade ago by the small-yet-mighty Nashville/L.A. outpost called Hyena Records.
One of the songs on the album, "A Love Song for Bobby Long," was the title track to a movie of the same name, based on a book by Capps’ father and starring none other than John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson. One would think that would’ve generated some considerable buzz, but the film was met with mixed reviews that tended toward the negative. The soundtrack (though it was an interesting mix of Los Lobos and Helen Humes) was generally disregarded, and Capps’ album flew, most unfairly, under the radar.
Thanks to the tasteful folks at Royal Potato Family -- who are behind the excellent new set from 6 String Drag -- this record’s getting a well-deserved second chance with Americana music fans. And rightly so. It’s an album that’s beautifully grand in its poetry and charmingly disheveled in its presentation.
The opening line of the opening song, "Get Back Up," says it all. “Yesterday was a very fine day, indeed,” he growls over a dirty harp-driven blues. “I got a bottle of beer, went outside, and brushed my teeth.” He puts on dirty clothes, goes back to work because he’s “got to make the money to give the money away at the rich man’s store.” There are too many great lines in the Resonator-rich title cut to pick just one but this slice of humor -- “I know you’re 22 and I ruined your life. But please, pretty baby, put down that kitchen knife” -- is a good place to start.
"Slidell" starts out as a story about “five people who got murdered by a drunk woman talking on her cell phone,” but is ultimately about the narrator’s own Slidell story, which includes being drunk at every turn and for every miniscule event. After the slow R&B groove of "I Can’t Hear You," we get to witness the aforementioned "Love Song to Bobby Long," the heart-wrenching Dylanesque story of a former football hero -- a dispassionate dreamer gone drunk, an anti-hero of Bruton, AL.
“Eliza’s in the ground. Thunder is her moan,” recites Capps in the Faulknerian stream of consciousness that is "Graveyard." Halfway through the record, Capps tears open a can of Texas blues on "Mercy," the modern day equivalent to "Sympathy for the Devil" (and just as spine-chillingly soulful). “Yesterday I had a dream. I could fly through the sky. Then I woke up in a sweat, not dead yet, but on the ground,” Capps sings over the subtle Rhodes and Resonator arrangement of "Lorraine’s Song." “Here comes,” he says as he counts off the lovely ballad “Washboard Lisa,” a tune as tender as the best ballads from the pens of Crowell or Clark. "Buckshot" is a blood red fuzzy guitar rock tune that bridges the space between "Washboard Lisa" and the funky rhythm and blues of "How’s I To Know." The original recording ends with the ballad "I See You" before the RPF people tacked on a live version of the blues classic "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed & Burning" -- a clever tune about how his woman ran off with an "Australian banjo player with a fake Southern accent" -- and a sweet outtake of "Washboard Lisa."
Indeed, this is a record most grand in its poetry, even though they are simple lines about simple people living simple lives. The tracks are exceptionally well-played examples of the great Southern music tradition, loosely approached but tightly delivered. This 10-year-old record is as good as anything being made today. Props to the Royal Potato people for bringing it back to light.