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Texan Battles Id and Ego

All things being alt-country: whiskey, horses, women, sorrow – Rocky Votolato sings a lot about trying to move on from it. Truth be told, he’s been trying to for awhile now and we’ve just taken his last decade for granted. From his rocking early days with the Chris Walla-produced Suicide Medicine to his awkward disconnection with reality’s-unplugged Makers, it’s been a malevolent Texas dirt road he’s traveled. And regrettably for him, the likes of Iron & Wine and Damien Jurado seemed to get their shit together long before (on similar paths we might add) consequently stealing the air from his fragile little lungs.  And so all these demons rose to the surface, literally asphyxiating him into seclusion and depression since we last heard from him in 2007’s The Brag & Cuss. We’re not one to reward gloom and doom, but his hitch is our reward.

On True Devotion, his 8th studio album, Votolato immediately lays the groundwork of where he’s been for the last three years with ‘Lucky Clover Coin’, wallowing about “a world I want to leave behind”. Yet, he’s not being honest with us. He checked out even before then. By moving away from his country rockabilly over the years he came up empty handed all too often with flat acoustic litter - hampered even further with tired lyrical contrasts about life. He’s learned a lot on Devotion. While in seclusion, he studied existential philosophy, history, physics, and theology to deconstruct his demons… whatever that means. Who the fuck knows. But what we get in return is one of his smartest confessionals to date.

Casey Foubert (Sufjan Stevens, David Bazan) and John Goodmanson (Blood Brothers, Sleater-Kinney) helped what could have easily been a jumbled mess. Perhaps they are the hint of glow and hope hidden in each song. Or Votolato is making headway; he’s actually starting to get it. The Elliot Smith nod ‘Sparklers’ may lament about its inevitably ending flicker, but he also talks about letting go to move on without sounding metaphorically cliché. A significant problem he suffered in the past. ‘Instrument’ has him playing his desire to get out of this funk or later admitting fault in the bountiful sounds of ‘Sun Devil’. Is he getting older or wiser? Whatever this groggy awakening is, True Devotion makes it appear like Votolato’s day - and livelihood - have a ray of optimism.

Sean Kendall