Review Summary: Take me to Critterland
There's been an encouraging trend in recent years of bluegrass' reclamation by progressive populism. The days of red solo cups & sexy tractors are waning, it's about damn time. Critterland is an earnest defense of what it actually means to be country: love of family, love of others, and the need to link arms as a community in hard times.
"Dry County Dust" talks about how he remembers his mom, and how he considers her death alongside his own near-death experiences. "The Great Depression" pays homage to the resilient spirit of Americans in the 1920's, and the many rights that were won by everyday people banding together. Two-Headed lamb is moving in a particular way, a song about the beauty of being 'born wrong', of having a life that is brief, but also beautiful and unique. He's confirmed this is a song written for the transgender people in his life, and it's all-around a metaphor lovingly-made in earnest.
And the music is full of lilting banjos, wailing fiddles and an assorted tableau of harmonicas, steel guitars and more. The choruses are earworms, and if you're not careful you'll find yourself yelling out "Take me to Critterland!" on the title track, or "Higher lonesome, kill the bitter parts of me," later on in the album. Great folk music does this, it makes music that's easy to remember.
In many ways it's anthemic for millennials, particularly "The Arrangements", which recounts his estrangement from his father, and how his feelings are complicated upon his death. Or "I Want No Children", which is the position of many now in our 30's. Especially "When the Pills Wear Off", a heartbreaking tribute to the friends he lost to addiction. And many of us millennials have lost friends to drugs, or are estranged from the family. Many of us feel tremendous pressure to have kids, but either don't want to give up our freedom or can't afford to raise them in an increasingly unequal economy. In just being himself, Willi Carlisle has made an album that encapsulates so many of our generational experiences.
Something else this album does so well, is that it continues on the proud tradition of folk music to tell a good story. Specifically, on "The Money Grows on Trees", which is about a hippie-turned-criminal-mastermind, and his ensuing rise and fall alongisde a corrupt sheriff. At 7 minutes long it is a poem of epic lengths, interspersed with the repeated hymn of "Oh hippies, hillbillies won't you gather round, a good man murdered, a bad man drowned. The cops are all moonshiners now, but the money grows on trees, yeah, the money grows on trees". It's reminiscient of Johnny Cash's "Send a Picture of Mother" or Brad Paisley & Allison Krauss' song "Whiskey Lullaby". They're all horribly sad songs, but isn't the function of great art to make us feel?
More than just being a damn good album of music, Critterland marks a triumphant return to the true roots of country music. Before 2001, country music was famous for hating the government. Consider Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, the aforementioned Johnny Cash and more. But after 9/11, suddenly all the country singers love the government and are gonna put a boot up your ass if you disagree. But no longer is that the blueprint, guys like Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers and now Willi Carlisle have shown that rural people won't fit neatly into any mold or stereotype.
