Tracks:
1. More Brother Rides
2. Viva Ultra
3. The Brute Choir
4. The Mountain Low
5. Tonight’s Decision (and Hereafter)
6. Work Hard / Play Hard
7. New Partner
8. Cat’s Blues
9. We All, Us Three, Will Ride
10. Old Jerusalem
Credits:
Liam Hayes – piano, organ
Jason Lowenstein – drums, additional singing
Ned Oldham – bass, slide guitar, additional singing
Will Oldham – singing, guitar
Bryan Rich – lead guitar
Recorded by Steve Albini
Released by Palace Records / Drag City
Viva Last Blues is an ode to the working man and all of his pains and pleasures. Palace Music approaches music often with a full band and, as usual, Albini’s production results in a tight, full sounding rhythm section that pounds forward no matter how slowly. The band plays like a honky tonk band in a bar on a Friday night well after hours. They and their audience are so inebriated that all the off-kilter melodies and missed notes form a beautiful symphony.
‘More Brother Rides’ creeps in with a slow beat and ghostly piano and then gets up to speed in time for Will’s voice to enter subtly but surely like its holding it all together. He rhythmically and poetically mutters about life as a young working man who can’t wait for the weekend. His lyrics are as dense as Faulkner but they tell a simple story of the frustrations that come with living only for free time for more drinking and fuc
king. Lyrics aside, the song is hypnotizing like countrified psychedelic jazz crammed into a traditional song structure.
They slow it down in the next song, ‘Viva Ultra’, showing us that Will has not given up his passion for slow, lo-fi country blues. ‘The Brute Choir’ picks the pace back up and drags the mood down lower. He is angry at himself for something he has done and isn’t in the mood to listen the church choir singing like everything is alright, damnit.
‘The Mountain Low’ is another highlight of the album. It’s a song about a young man who loves mountains almost as much as he loves women – and he loves mountains a lot. The music sounds like it’s for dancing some king of jig in a square dance.
‘Work Hard / Play Hard’ is played with the excitement and intensity that is felt on Friday night after you already spent half your paycheck on alcohol and that’s why you feel so sure that everything is going to be OK. The band reaches the height of its energy and every element of the band rocks while Will belts out his words with abandon. This song confirms that Will Oldham has soul.
‘New Partner’ is a veritable love song without any of the callous sexual imagery that is usually present. It really is a beautiful song. When I saw Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy play live this past June, the crowd went wild when this song started. ‘Cat’s Blues’ is another quick paced song that plods steadily as Will reaches some emotional highs and lows. The last two songs are sparse and feature only singing and acoustic guitar. They seem a bit out of place among the relatively rocking songs that preceded them but they still feel appropriate or at least natural like Saturday morning’s depressing hangover.
Today, Will Oldham has a relatively polished sound having played his own music with so many different musicians for so long, but
Viva Last Blues was the first glimpse into what Will could do with a full band while fully opening the throttle on his voice. It is the result of Will taking his dark mountain folk concept into the realm of rock-n-roll. The album is raw but made to stir the listener physically as well as emotionally and it succeeds. There were probably not a lot of truckers and miners at Palace Music shows in 1995 but if there were, I’m sure that everybody got roaring drunk and had a really good time.
9.8/10