Vagabonds

Gary Louris ~ Vagabonds

Vagabonds is a beautifully produced album that is a mostly acoustic recording textured with steel guitar and choir. This album has soul, not in the R&B tradition but in that it is music from the heart. One can't help but feel that Gary Louris found himself at a crossroads, he could keep with the path he was on and keep the group together which would have been safe, he could return to an old partner and make a duo album which also would have been relatively safe or he could could go out on his own and work without a net. He chose the least safe path. The song "Omaha Nights" seems to be a story of an epiphany that came in a road trip from Des Moines to Lincoln, answers seem to reveal themselves on the road especially when driving through the cornfields of America's heartland, the prairies, flat and endless bring one to an almost zen like awareness, in which he was set free by Omaha. I think the line "Am I growing old in the arms of the wrong lover" is a metaphor for his career path and the epiphany that comes in "Omaha Nights" is what lead to this solo album, as if in a lightning flash he came to the conclusion it was time to do something for himself instead of the writing and producing he has been doing for others. "Am I singing melodies all meant for other singers, Occupying spaces that were clearly meant for others". Vagabonds is an album that bears repeated listening, it continues to grow with every spin. From the choir bringing you to an old tent revival in the ending of "To Die A Happy Man" to the subtleties of "D.C. Blues" to the soaring steel guitar through out, this album has magic that doesn't seem to end.