Events

[FOLK] Depending on how you count ‘em, 2015’s Salt As Wolves, with its Othello-derived title, is either Jeffrey Foucault’s fifth or 10th record. The Wisconsin native, now situated for many years in Western Massachusetts with his wife, fellow singer/songwriter Kris Delmhorst, loans as much of his time to side projects as he does to his own: There are multiple releases with poetess Lisa Olstein under the moniker Cold Satellite, as well as a pair of albums in a folkie supergroup, Redbird (with Delmhorst and Peter Mulvey), and a one-off duo disc with Mark Erelli. While his collaborations all carry a similar air of spontaneity, Salt as Wolves—his indie debut after years with Signature Sounds—is an example of Foucault’s more musically meticulous side, cloaked in a ragged blues exterior. It’s carefully architected music that balances on the rain-weakened wood fence between blues, folk, and old-world country, often seeming like an understated T Bone Burnett project or, conversely, an unusually well-produced Steve Earle album.

Wolves shuffles listlessly along in parts, aided by the brushed beats of drummer (and regular touring partner) Billy Conway, and rocks a bit harder in other places with guitarist Bo Ramsey and bassist Jeremy Moses Curtis building additional tension. Caitlin Canty supplies some tempering relief in the form of wispy female harmony vocals. Foucault’s middle-aged restlessness comes across loud and clear amid the musical spaciousness and in his written observations, perhaps now informed by years of working with Olstein. But it’s his voice that steals the show and calls you back, a reedy instrument that’s got plenty of that masculine grit all the male country stars reach for, delivered with none of the pitch controlled bullshit they rely on. The results are expertly crafted, if a bit dirgey, and offer some reassurance that we’re not alone in our murky dissatisfaction with growing older.  Foucault will feature material from Salt as Wolves along with old favorites and maybe even some new material from the disc he just finished recording at the 9th Ward, downstairs at Babeville, on Wednesday, November 30.