Jeffrey Foucault's Cold Satellite is a little gem of an album.
The American singer-songwriter's sixth album is written in collaboration with acclaimed young American poet Lisa Olstein and the result is impressive, both for its lyrics and music.
Foucault, from south-eastern Wisconsin, was a late starter, as he recalled: "When I was 17, my Dad brought home John Prine's first album and it became my private religion for a while. I learned to play the guitar by learning his songs." He celebrated Prine in an album of covers called Shoot the Moon Right Between the Eyes, which contains a moving and mournful version of My Mexican Home.
Cold Satellite is an altogether more original yet even more impressive work. Taking unpublished poems and fragments of writing from Olstein, Foucault has added words and weaved the result into a powerful mix of rock (with some menacing electric guitars), folk and country.
A stellar lineup that includes Billy Conway (Morphine, Twinemen) on drums; Jeremy Moses Curtis (Booker T) on bass; David Goodrich (Chris Smither) on electric guitars; and Nashville session veteran Alex Mccollough on pedal steel help Focoult deliver beguiling, interesting songs in a variety of moods.
The lyrics are full of unexpected, poetic, treats, not the least a love song that is subverted on Nothing I Wouldn't Do (Except Stay).
Other highlights include the poem-song Deserter's Information Centre, Cold Satellite (the term for a satellite that has stopped communicating) Late Season and In Our Own Country, a slow burning ballad.
Foucoult, who is married to singer Kris Delmhorst, is a musician ably reaching for the sky.
Jeffrey Foucault Cold Satellite, Blueblade Music
Download this: Deserter's Information Centre
