The Wayside – Anything But Blue
(2019, self-released)
The Wayside is an Americana band, comprised of acoustic guitar playing, songwriting, vocalizing Shannon Fulgham; and electric guitar playing, singing, and songwriting Dan Walker; a bass playing Bill Dougherty; and a drumming Brad Robertson. Further combing of government and social media databases place this musical group in Ballard, Washington, USA, and they have a new album called Anything But Blue. It’s competent to the point of sophisticated Country music that hearkens encouragingly forward.
Shannon Fulgham delivers gut-punching, earthbound songs of domestic disappointment that wisely leave room for hope. Her voice sounds a bit like a Caitlin Cary or Gillian Welch and she writes like Mary Lou Lord and Kathleen Edwards co-thinking about Loretta Lynn. “Never Count On You” is a standout example, and the colloquial word-play is dignified to the point of literature in the chorus line “one thing I could always count on is that I could never count on you.” Another great offering, “Medicine,” makes further use of direct-communication-as-lyrics and is made all the more melancholy with use of its laconic and conversational language, and its emotional center blooms in spirals from the repeated pleas, “. . . I can’t be your medicine”.
A duality is achieved by the talents of “Normal” Dan Walker, whose own songs match Fulgham’s for relational dissatisfaction and refined lyrical modesty – only with his own counterpoint of frenetic brightness. “I’ll Get The Door” brings some flippant surrender to the themes of interpersonal discord, “Till Daylight Comes Again” reads like a Willy Vlautin character that’s more than just a jaded casino employee, and “Devil’s Highway” is a waltz concerning existential conversations with a hitchhiking devil. Along with the unique storytelling, Walker’s guitar playing is a Felix bag of barroom Telecaster blues, twanging rhythm crunches, and Allman-grade guitarmonies, and he shows courage throughout his solos’ melodic narratives.
The rhythm section of Bill Dougherty and Brad Robertson shine in their respective roles. Dougherty’s bass playing is nimble in-and-around its Country 1s and 5s and his lines lace throughout the songs tastefully. He manages to simultaneously subvert and support the genre’s stylistic expectations, and these choices make for a deeper listening experience. The canvas on which these songs are painted is the drumming of Brad Robertson, and if it wasn’t for his clock-like handiwork and discerning percussive voicings, I think I’d have been pulled out of the stories when I wasn’t supposed to be – and I never once was.
The overall cooperation throughout the songs is seamless enough that the album unfurls like a conceptual “she said, he said,” and the band’s arrangement choices stay varied. Fulgham’s almost Appalachian qualities volley back and forth with Walker’s honky-tonk and everything-west-of-the-Mississippi sound – overall achieving a presentation that doesn’t stale. One and all can find The Wayside at a watering hole nearby, and I suggest buying their new vinyl before they run out.
The Wayside is appearing at The Shanty Tavern TONIGHT, Nov. 8th, 2019, at 9pm. They’re playing with The Cupholders – who are pretty much their opposite in every way.