Lonesome Valley…

Even the most basic of internet searches will show the large musical output of singer-songwriter Jason Molina. Since retiring his former band Songs:Ohia, Molina has grown increasingly prolific in the past few years, recording and touring extensively under his own name and his full band, Magnolia Electric Co.

That band’s latest, and third, record Fading Trails serves as a natural and logical extension to his past. This band has always conjured that 70’s Neil Young and Crazy Horse southern rock sprawl, but this album pares away at the power and intensity of previous work. While still simmering in their distinctive brooding country dirge, Fading Trails Molina and company tighter and more restrained.

Magnolia Electric Co.'s new album is Fading TrailsThe moods and instrumentation vary from track to track. Sometimes the songs are simplified down to vocals and solo guitar or piano and can be opaquely confessional. At other times they pile on the layers of sound, weaving a dark wall of Fender Rhodes keyboards, prepared pianos, pedal steel and driving bass accompanying Molina’s lamenting voice and biting guitar. On songs such as “Lonesome Valley,” the group interplay proves an integral part in the songs development; they are dynamic and elastic to provide some flexibility to the music.

And though most of these songs are beautiful and reserved, you cannot help but try to imagine what they might sound like live in concert when they have some room to breathe. No doubt a few would stretch into heroic epics in the live repertoire in typical Crazy Horse-fashion.