Rocky
Votolato ‘Makers’ delivers
folk, indie
By Kyle Cavaness
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Rocky Votolato renews his application for indie-rock troubadour with “Makers,” his
third full-length release. (That’s troubadour as in traveling folk singer,
not the Los Angeles club.) His methods may be a generation or two old, but Votolato’s
music breathes new life into an old dog needing a new trick.
“
Makers” follows up Votolato’s 2003 release, “Suicide
Medicine,” with a far more subdued and subtle feel than its predecessor.
The raspy shouts of “Suicide Medicine” are all but gone here; harmonized
double-tracked vocals replace the few emo cliches left in Votolato’s songs,
making the new album a more unabashedly folk offering than previous efforts.
This isn’t to say “Makers” lacks an edge, however. The funeral
march of “Where We Left Off” and the hypnotic strums of “She
Was Only in It for the Rain” keep the album intriguing at every turn. (“Rain,” the
cornerstone of the album, is the only song not credited to Votolato, written
instead by “Piss Pissedoffherson.”)
A country twang saturates the album, with Makers taking a strong cue from indie
superhero Bright Eyes, but Votolato’s hoarse, seen-it-all voice gives the
album a sense of nostalgic ache that puts it more in line with Johnny Cash than
Conor Oberst.
The strongest elements of the album couple the singer’s voice with his
ability to turn a memorable phrase. “The catch-22s are all catching up
with you,” he sings on “Wait Out the Days.” “Makers” tells
more than its share of stories in Votolato’s colorful lyrics; “Goldfield” and “The
Night’s Disguise” center around mining towns and farm work, respectively.
The old-fashioned narrative of these songs only adds to the rural atmosphere
of the album, placing “Makers” in a pickup truck somewhere on a backcountry
road near where your grandparents grew up.
Though the album bogs down a little in the middle, “Makers” is a
great experience for anyone searching for a soul in typical pop-schlock. Rocky
Votolato has a bright future ahead of him as the local troubadour, as long as
he keeps putting out gems like these.
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