Album Review: At Home with Will Courtney and the Wild Bunch

It is possible the only problem with this Will Courtney album is the length. Six songs hardly feel like enough. Perhaps the saddest part of the vast changes in the music business is the fall of albums as a collection of songs rather than the trend of artist releasing nothing but singles. In this case, what we’re talking about here is technically an EP that dropped in September, but you’ll see what I mean as we get into this record, entitled, At Home with Will Courtney and the Wild Bunch. The reason for the “At Home” bit is the entire record was recorded remotely from each player’s home as the pandemic provided additional challenges to recording artists.

Music junkies like me thrive on the stories of creative madness that comes to artists in recording sessions. Late nights, lucky superstitions, last minute arrangements, re-writing or re-working parts of a song, are all fascinating tales tracing the origins of music in my mind.

Even with only six tracks on this record, Courtney delivers a soulful, country rock collection of well-crafted, warmly woven songs. At times, Courtney’s vocals are reminiscent of Jeff Tweedy, but less Wilco and more his time with Uncle Tupelo. Other songs he pushes deeper into his register to record the song with a lower, more gruff edge to his voice.  The entire record can be streamed here.

At Home is a special project, recorded literally at home during the summer of 2020 while all members of the band were separately under quarantine. Courtney pays homage to a collection of songwriters that have influenced him like Neil Young as well as Townes Van Zandt and even psych rock pioneer Roky Erickson, offering these six new tunes and band’s take on those musical influences.

Courtney currently lives in Santa Fe, after stints in a log cabin in Dripping Springs (Central Texas) where he landed after a move from Austin to Louisiana, then to Nashville, Santa Fe and back to Austin. When Courtney was in Austin the first time around, he was lead singer and songwriter of Brothers and Sisters, a band that received some attention in the local and national press. Courtney has produced albums for other artists, and is a historian contributing to documentaries on The Discovery Channel on the American West.

At Home is fun and familiar yet dignified and warm. Courtney and his band, The Wild Bunch fill each of these songs with an originality and depth worthy of the legendary songwriters they honor. The band is tight and pulls together with a polished yet freestyle methodology that lends itself to the introspective mood most of us have been experiencing during these strange past several months.

Music is one of the best vehicles to explore and bring catharsis to feelings like that. It bridges the gap between sorrow and delight. It gives hope to the hopeless, drags dreams out into the open daylight and gives them wings to soar into the beauty of hemisphere. Music is healing and makes one feel they have bathed in magic waters. Artists like Will Courtney are more than just painting pictures on the backside of your soul but performing a public service to bring beauty into the hearts and minds of those most in need.

If the worst aspect of this album is that it’s too brief, then perhaps the best part of 2020 is artists like Courtney, making records, performing live streams, and sending great music straight into our homes? Perhaps this wizardly of music delivery is the offset we all need to justify the very existence of technology?

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