Album Review: Levi Lowrey 'Roots & Branches'

With his latest release, Roots & Branches Levi Lowrey celebrates his musical heritage, present, and future. The double disc set begins with Roots where on the spoken “I Grew Up In Dacula” Lowrey describes his musical history from learning fiddle and watching his elders play in the weekly jam to ultimately being welcomed into the fold at that jam, cutting his teeth at the “The Chicken House."

On the songs that follow, the feelings of community and intimacy are apparent, transporting you to that chicken shack listening to Levi and the modern day Skillet Lickers (Lowrey’s great grandfather’s popular band in 1920’s and 1930’s). Brought to life by superb musicianship, the songs on Roots include standards (“Soldier’s Joy” and “Lorena”), Skillet Lickers’ originals and instrumentals that celebrate the past and furnish a traditional, down-home feel. The first chapter also includes "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" and “The Old Spinning Wheel” before concluding with “Community” on which Lowrey reflects on the communal sense music provides and the impact it can have on people, “Fleet Stanley” where he talks about that lack of believability that is lacking in popular music and “Lamp Lighting Time In The Valley” which recounts his journey while noting that while much has changed, he can still be found at the Chicken House every Friday when he is home as it ”is the place that will guide me wherever I go.”

With his roots firmly planted, the second disc, Branches demonstrates how those early influences shaped his branches as an artist and as a man, who while still questioning and dealing with his struggles, remains realistic, thoughtful, compassionate….and a dreamer. Opening track, “Prodigals Postcard” is a narrative detailing that familiar story of leaving one’s small town for bigger things, yet being held – or pulled - back (for better or for worse) by one’s roots. “If folks say there’s a way to get out of this town what am I still doing here?”

Lowrey brings his beautifully warm, striking and heartfelt vocals to a myriad of songs about love, life, and death. “Dance With The Devil,” where a long-passed girlfriend returns from the grave calling him to come with her, is instantly chilling while “Too Late” relates that familiar feeling of regret and lost love, “Sometimes it takes the sound of a fool-heart breaking down to make you realize that every little tear in her eye was just hourglass sand” with a melancholy melody trailing off as he sings, “You can’t go back it don’t work like that…” and “Old Trouble Like Me” which finds him openly and honestly warning another not to give their heart to him because he’ll just break it, “Give your cards to old gypsies, they'll read them for you/Give your youth to old habits and old points of view/Old memories of lovers don’t die easily/Don't give your heart to old trouble like me." 

The gentle, folk-inspired “Play An Old Time Fiddle Tune” is hopeful and encouraging, offering the wisdom that comes with time to “keep your hopes up tall and your worries short” and spending our limited time here on earth wisely, focusing on loved ones and dreams. Similar themes continue on the driving, “Like They Should” where more modern melodies are infused in a song about the often unexpected turns life can take from illness to the fulfillment of dreams and to the (literal) fall of an old and special tree. “And I chase dreams juts to watch them burn been deemed unworthy of the praise I’ve earned/It’s a side of effect of living wouldn’t change it if I could/Things they don’t always turn out like they should.”

Branches is rounded out by three stellar tracks: “Play An Old Time Fiddle Tune,” “One Good Year” and “The One That Broke The World” The lively, inspiring and lovingly written first examines death as a physical event, but one where you can still be present, living on in other ways. “Bury me beneath the weeping willow/I'll live on forever in a tree/If your bow runs out of grip just wait for the sap to drip/You can play an old time fiddle tune with me." Death is again addressed on the personal “One Good Year” where he pleadingly requests “300 days and two good months” to feel a semblance peace and get his demons off his chest before his time comes, before closing with the acoustic “The One That Broke The World” an introspective and incredibly stirring song blending religion and struggle. “I keep moving though there ain’t no signs I’m gaining any ground I guess you can’t lose what you ain’t ever found.”

Roots and Branches originates from an artist who shows great reverence and respect for his past while continuing to grow his own boughs into a beautifully shady tree full of songs filled with emotion, insight and indelible melodies that will continue to nourish long after he moves on.

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