Ron House – Obsessed

I definitely missed this the first time around, as I think may have been the case with far too many, but timing is just right for a second life on Ron House’s solo album, Obsessed. House’s name is probably more familiar tied to his group Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, but the Midwest songwriter has also been found in groups like the sorely underrated Great Plans, Moses Caryout, Ego Summit and Psandwich. Unlike the bulk of his catalog, the works on Obsessed don’t hinge on frayed wire guitar, soaked in the acerbic itch of Ohio’s post-industrial ghosts. They do, however, hang on House’s biting lyrics, and a perfectly nasal rasp. With a few friends along for the ride, including members of Movieola, TJSA, Jerry DeCicca & Noel Sayre, the album leans into the tenor of its title. The songs are hamstrung by love, torn apart by time, and ravaged by so called “bad luck.”

Neither folk nor country, but damaged with the same dented soul of some of the best road-ragged troubadours who’ve found themselves swimming at the bottom of the bottle, the album melds the workshirt shrugs of Snock, Townes, and Blaze, and pins ‘em to a Bill Fox frankness. The LP is unvarnished, but somehow still some of Ron’s most accessible works. The record’s filled with a hangdog humor that’s always been bubbling below the surface of Ron’s songs, but finds its full bloom here in the acoustic setting. House’s “hero” points fingers in all directions in the wake of a relationship’s dissolution, every direction but inward. The kind of oblivious ire feels familiar to anyone who’s haunted a dark bar stool. There’s always a patron like the storyteller at the heart of Obsessed, and House brings the charcoal sketches of deepening depression to vivid life. In 2002 the CD came and went, but a new vinyl edition breathes new life into this overlooked gem. Nab one before they disappear.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.