Sowell, Matt – “Organize Or Die” – [Feeding Tube Records]

Jay Omega   12/1/2020   12-inch, A Library

This is solo acoustic guitar. Mostly distinctly American music (i.e. blues and folk), but with some international influences (e.g. Sehkarhji has a Indian feel with a sitar sound). Matt Sowell hails from Minneapolis, and describes himself as “American Primitive”. It’s contemplative, lonely, and melancholic. Reminiscent of the empty despair captured in Ry Cooder’s “Paris Texas”, or the woven rhythm and melodies of Leo Kottke, though more profound than Kottke and without the “wow-factor”. A review on Bandcamp described it as having “reflections on the darker textures of our human condition”, which really nails it. I can imagine Otis Redding listening to this when he spent the day sittin’ on the dock of the bay.