Mark Kozelek, formerly of the Red House Painters, explored the haunting, the beautiful, and the elegiac on his magnificent album Ghosts of the Great Highway. His music with Sun Kil Moon is rich, lyrical, evocative, and nostalgic, the shimmering tapestries of an Ohio fall. Kozelek moves listeners to contemplate their own solitude, even if later revelations take them to another time, another place.
Ghosts of the Great Highway weaves through several songs about deceased boxers: gone-too-soon featherweight champion Salvador Sanchez, legendary flyweight Pancho Villa, and the tragic Duk Koo Kim. (That song is a breathtaking 14 minutes, the number of rounds Kim lasted in his final bout). Moon Sung Kil is a Korean bantamweight (hence the name) and the album's opening song begins with a confession of boxers, Judas Priest guitarists, and old actors and singers:
Cassius Clay was hated
More than Sonny Liston
Some like K.K. Downing
More than Glenn Tipton
Some like Jim Nabors
Some Bobby Vinton
I like'em all
That same magnanimity is present throughout Kozelek's distinctive catalog, albeit in an oft-melancholy form; indeed, Kozelek has recorded several fantastic covers albums, including releases devoted entirely to the songs of AC/DC and Modest Mouse.
One of the fathers of so-called slowcore, Kozelek's love of music's raw and poetic power finds its way into his deep introspection and gorgeously rendered guitarwork. His singular songcraft is worthy of our affection and his status as one of our finest songwriters is all but assured. (Cameron Crowe is such a huge fan, not only did he include the songs in his movies, he put Kozelek in the movies as well, with roles in Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky.
On Ghosts of the Great Highway's second track, "Carry Me Ohio" recalls former loves: a person and a place. The song marries the two memories and reinforces its powerful ambiguity as the listener is never certain whether the narrator longs for lover or home. (Our singer grew up in Ohio). Kozelek's signature voice, singing over layered and intricate classical-guitar and open-tuned arrangements, rises and falls with the penultimate plea: "Heal her soul, carry her, my little Ohio." The words, half-way submerged in the music's dense soundscape, slowly reveal themselves, mimicking the fleeting, hazy nature of memory.
Why listen? Mark Kozelek is the most sublime traditionalist of the decade. Kozelek's patient, nuanced, and introspective arrangements allow his poetic voice to resonate in the profound. His music, and "Carry Me Ohio" in particular, compels listeners to consider their mortality, and in some small way, moves us to become more wholly ourselves.
Something else? "Glenn Tipton," "Gentle Moon," "Salvador Sanchez," "The Last Tide," "Pancho Villa," "Lost Verses," "Moorestown," "Blue Orchids."
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