Mark Pickerel makes a good record. Cody’s Dream is a rollicking trip of deft lyricism, journeyman musicianship and outright charm. The former Screaming Tress drummer and elsewise able sideman has here assembled 13 tracks both cinematic and intimate in their evocation of a trippy American panoramic.

The production is atmospherically stellar and the songs sound at once fresh, yet from another time. Bits of jazzy chord changes, baritone cowboy guitar and spectral background vocals sally forth as if dialed-in from a border town crystal set. That is to say; not quite here, not quite there. And don’t be surprised if the delivery makes you thirsty, for it is rakishly deadpan, dry and hot.

Much has been made of Pickerel’s voice, a crooning cross of Chris Isaak and Nick Cave sure, but that’s not quite a full assessment. This is but a naive first impression, for in fact he shows great range throughout Cody’s Dream. What could have been a gimmicky annoyance fits right in with the recording’s myriad features and unique personality.

The title track kicks things of with a boom, a riff and a chorus that may as well have fallen off the T. Rex truck. Here we are introduced to the character of the record, a restless concoction of dreamers, cowpunks, lovers and droogs just this side of resolution.

Mom’s got religion, Dad’s got drink, I’m still hangin’ on to Cody’s Dream.      

“Let Me Down Easy” smolders over a tiki tom-tom beat as our narrator pleads with his lover to take all night in letting him off the hook. A right cheerful coda gives us the impression that everything turns out just fine.

Johnny Sangster’s guitar work is solid from beginning to end but plays especially well over the castanets of “The Last Leaves”. It’s a sultry tango of longing wordplay referencing ‘leaves’ as both noun and verb. A quick nod to Pickerel’s punkier side, “She Calls” gallops out of the gate in staccato bursts. ‘She’ of the title is evidently gone yet still holds sway over our protagonist.

Her body’s in his arms, her heart’s in space. She’s left the ugly scene for a pretty place.      

Slightly reminiscent in chord structure to Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer”, “One More Cup of Coffee” finds our hero pulling himself up for the trip “to the valley below”. Here the mysterious undercurrent of Cody’s Dream is in full bloom.

Then, just like that, the mood shifts to the jazzy stylings of “Leaving With The Swamptones”. It’s a swingin’ ride telling the delightful tale of a traveling gospel group. “Cherokee Grove” keeps the mood upbeat with some fine pop vocal arrangements over Margrethe Bjorkland’s pedal steel. Likewise “I Promise” shimmers in large part to Heather Duby’s guest vocals.

She’s disproved the existence of God, but she finds herself praying just like she was taught. And she’s obsessed with numbers, how they solve it all, still confused by the equation: his phone call.      

Cody’s Dream as a whole is mainly a narrative, and right about here in the journey Pickerel’s songwriting looks to be coalescing at the prospect of being off the road and closer to home. The tubular bells that open “And So Be It Then” as much as herald the bittersweet finality, and “The Closing Theme”, well…

Someday, this life it will write home, I can leave you all alone, I won’t trouble you no more. I know, the trial won’t last long, you can all go home, to laugh out loud I hope.      

But lest we say goodbye too soon, the rocky “She Sleeps Through Sirens” is a jouyous, celebratory romp that would make a fine live set-closer, while the ensuing 7-minute “Deep Inside Your Shade” feels like a delicious, multi-colored morning after. Finally, “Cody’s Last Ride” bookends the piece with a brief instrumental revisitation to the album’s opening theme.

While the pigeon holes Americana and AltCountry may well have retired from service, Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands successfully re-frame those somewhat worn genres with great skill and imagination on Cody’s Dream. This is American music lovingly rendered around strong songwriting, lyrical beauty and an un-selfconscious sense of longing. If you dig the dusty trail and a bit of dark irony with your two-step, pick it up.

Learn more…Bloodshot Records

© Stephen Mockensturm 2008 for Listen In. Some Rights Reserved.

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