Wonderful Aspiration of the Source

Strap the name Michael Hix on a release and I’m certainly expecting something soaked in the cosmic end of the spectrum; an exploration of ambient country that sticks to the underside of the clouds. While his latest is certainly of the cosmic variety, it strips back the expansive setups that mark his work with Nashville Ambient Ensemble. No effusive keys here, not a drop of Luke Schneider’s trademark steel, no sprawling arrangements that build into comforting cocoons. Instead, Hix entered The Golden Tone Zone in Nashville with Styrofoam Winos’ Trevor Nikrant for a meditative study in B-Bender guitar. As with his records with the ensemble, there’s a sense of space, filling the room like fogged breath. The record doesn’t come off like country at first blush, but it’s orbiting the edges of the canon, melting guitar lines into something solemn and sweet.

The past few years of Hix’ output make a guitar record feel like a surprising move. He’s been solidly wrapped in synths these days, but there’s something about leaving the confines of familiarity for the excitement of something new. Hix claims to have become enraptured by the B-Bender’s mournful sound, and after searching out video of Marty Stuart’s guitarist Kenny Vaughan playing the instrument, it became an obsession. On the eponymous LP, Hix breathes as much new life into the instrument as it breaths into him. He harness the guitar’s sigh to his own ends, laying out a record that’s part jazz, part country, part ambient float. In all modes the guitar taps into a deep well of melancholy. The tone conveys a collective grief, an expulsion of ill omens and soured searching. It’s a quiet wonder of a record, but one that leaves a definite imprint on the listener as the last notes fade.

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