Music Reviews

“erickson_roky”

Roky Erickson

Never Say Goodbye

Emperor Jones

I wish I could summarize the essence of Roky Erickson as well as Mountain Goat John Darnielle does in his liner notes essay. This is a collection of tracks from 1971, 1974, 1983 and 1985, and perhaps the fact that the disparity in recording dates is not noticeable through Erickson’s plain guitar and plaintive voice says much about the nature of this music. A casual listen will sound like a basement recording of an anguished teenager and his steel string. The songs, simple as they may be, stick in your head and open up like tropical orchids, revealing a depth of lyric and understanding of songwriting that seem limitless.

Trance Syndicate, P.O. Box 49771, Austin, TX 78765


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