Cosmos-wrangling Americana upstart Israel Nash returns from Texas Hill Country with his Silver Season, a deeply gorgeous and wholly immersive nine-song set that plays less like an album, and more like a cross section of time and space. The man's fourth LP ventures farther down the acid-soaked trail blazed by 2013's Rain Plans, arriving in lush and expansive territory. Here, this Missouri son sounds more assured than ever, supported by his highly capable band and production inspired by psychedelic greats. Israel Nash's Silver Season is best played loudly, and sounds wonderful in headphones. 

Like the record before it, this one was made on Nash's 15-acre swath of land in Dripping Springs, Texas, with one key difference. While Rain Plans was recorded inside of the new home he shared with his then-pregnant wife, Silver Season was born in the studio Nash built outside and named Plum Creek Sound, a 1,400 square- foot Quonset erected in March. The band was ready to begin in late May when the floods came, filling the building with water and muck. Nash and the boys pushed on anyhow. Digging trenches, hauling sandbags, clearing mud, and plugging in—that's how they made an album, doing what needed to be done.

The end result isn't so terrestrial, however. Silver Season billows outward with its opening song, "Willow." A swirl of keys, bass, pedal steel, acoustic strum, and languid drums envelop the listener as Nash's cooed poetry recontextualizes the world through his daughter's eyes. A shimmery Morricone-like passage carries us into "Parlour Song," which sounds a little like Neil Young leading Tame Impala. "Sooner or later we'll surrender our guns/But not until we've shot everyone," Nash sings. And while the line would fit into a celebratory tale about Old West outlaws, it's actually a modern lament. 

From the warm drift and easy elasticity of "Strangers" (one of two cuts that verge on seven minutes) to the holler-along gospel of "The Rag & Bone Man," Silver Season feels like a living thing. That's a product of the wild five-man sessions that took place in the sweltering Quonset (with beer breaks, and slingshot target practice using the empties). It's also due to the care put into taming all of that good noise, with engineer Ted Young (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth) returning to the mix. The analog hum grounds the guitar wizardry, while the depth of sound ties the band to the pasture that surrounds. 

It makes sense that Nash would come into his own out there. He was raised in the Ozarks amidst hills and farmland. Other things add up too. His pastor father and artist mother were very much children of the '60s. Dad bought him Sgt. Pepper's when he was 10, Mom handed him an electric guitar at 11, and Nash was writing songs by 12. And while he's grown away from the religion he was raised under, Nash's music is nothing if not spiritual. The spirit just comes from a different place—nature, family, song, and the occasional trip into times and spaces we can't normally access. Hidden within the folds of Silver Season, Nash's weather-beaten voice says it best: 

"I don't live like the others/I see twice as many colors."

A southern occultist juxtaposed in the middle of New York City, Breanna Barbara writes songs that make your soul dance, songs that make you question how many lives you’ve led, or if you ever lived at all.

Through her rambling of the earth, she's traced a map constellated with pins, strings, and patterns. Here’s one that charts St. Augustine to New Orleans, to New York City, knotting the places she has lived and gathered sonic inspiration. Another loops around the kingdoms of Scandinavia then, lower, ties the mountains of Switzerland, through the beaches of Italy, to the monuments of Paris where she sung her songs to foreign followers.

Over here, Nashville is tacked: a keepsake for her first album, ‘Mirage Dreams’, which she recorded with Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes), which gained praises from V Magazine (“her smoky quartz voice is one in a million”), Bandcamp (“fans of Chelsea Wolfe and King Dude will find plenty here to love”), and Action Bronson who invited her to perform on his VICE talk show.

The densest fragment of the tapestry, with strands criss-crossing throughout, covers North America, where she toured with trip-hop legend Tricky before recording songs for the his latest record and his label’s first compilation.

If you squint, these motifs might start making sense but don’t be fooled: the full picture is yet to come.

Guitarist creating remixes and original songs.

Disowning this account as a lot of these recordings range anywhere from  being cheesy as anything to poorly mixed. Leaving it up for posterity.

Boutique backing tracks from the SHRED SHED! For discerning shredders only!


Big Crown Records is a Brooklyn based independent record label started in 2016 by Leon Michels & Danny Akalepse. Home of Lee Fields & The Expressions, Lady Wray, El Michels Affair, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, The Shacks, Paul & The Tall Trees, 79.5, Bobby Oroza, Brainstory, Okonkolo, and many more.

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