Coyote Motel - The River: A Songwriter’s Stories of the South (2024)

So perhaps it’s worth a listen then. The music & the film’s conception were the brainchild of bandleader Ted Drozdowski (guitarist/vocals/diddley bow) who spent decades making this come to life. So, aside from outlining the story I’ll aim at the music & begin with a tale of flooding in “Tupelo.”

The 10-tracks (+ 2 additional radio mixes) comprise The River: A Songwriter’s Stories of the South. Produced by Ted & recorded in Nashville, TN the set starts with a solid haunting guitar-rattling melody with a jumble of crispiness & tight performances by all. The music possesses some eccentric asides (the female backup singer is a nice touch – almost like the late jazz singer Kitty White who sang in response to Elvis Presley early in the New Orleans morning on “Crawfish” (in “King Creole”). Mesmerizing arrangement. Bravo. The tune here is 6 minutes — all well-spent minutes.

The LP drips atmosphere & mood (including when the female singer goes solo). “Black Lung Fever,” & “Still Among the Living,” while not sung gritty have grit between its weaves – a personal history, a diary of hardship squeezed out of another era. This is where the blues went – sifted through the arc of the electricity in a guitar held by a man in a worn fedora & carrying a picture of Richard Thompson in his coat with a cheroot.

Some songs are good in an old-world bluesy grind, J.J. Cale tradition & Gerry Rafferty vocal tone (“Down In Chulahoma”). The additives are there, the frosting, persistent driving sonics & its humidity, ah, the humidity – the swampiness — never disappoints a listener. It’s Americana…it’s all here.