Barroom Blues Masterpiece

“Rico,”a track off of Jeffrey Foucault’s new album, Salt as Wolves, transports the listener into a dimly lit saloon. A vagabond bursts through the swinging door, looks left and then right. He puts out his cigarette, and walks up to the stage, spurs clanking. In his powerful voice Foucault orders a beer, and starts tuning the strings on the guitar he had slung to his back like he owns the place. Then, as soon as he starts singing, he proves he owns the place.

Salt as Wolves is a barroom masterpiece. It plays like a transcendent, intimate concert performed at a tiny venue where the only way to get in is to accidentally show up. It is this folk music melting pot of John Lee Hooker blues guitar and expertly crafted lyrics, seasoned with a pinch of country spice, heated by driving drum beats, and presided by the master, Jeffrey Foucault.

The album, which was recorded live in only three days, plays like a masterpiece. Every track treats the listener to heavy hitting electric blues licks; whether he picks them slow, sparse or any other way always seem to be exactly what the listener wants to hear. The heartbeat drums that ring strong on every track back up Foucault’s cascading guitar. It’s a wonderful pairing.

Foucault, a songwriting veteran, builds lyrics that create terrific stories and keep the listener hinged tightly to each song. Whether he is talking about love, loss or anything else, Foucault’s lyrics sing out strong sounding like they came from the heart of someone who truly feels them. This forces the listener to feel them too.

Songs like “Slow Talker” are reason enough to believe in American music. The hurt lyrics of a man struggling to communicate with his lost love bubble beautifully under this rising, driving, living guitar solo. You hear Foucault sing “Deep water / like a river underground / speaks thunder / and never makes a sound.” This kind of quiet strength is mirrored in the song where sparse lyrics, and subtle picking make a song thats meaning is far more that the sum of its parts.

This is one hell of a record. Sit down and take a listen. Salt as Wolves is an album that refuses to disappoint.