Cory Branan never had much use for themes.
A songwriter’s kind of songwriter, he once named an album “12 Songs” because that’s what it was - just 12 songs he had written and recorded.
But as he made his newest CD, “Mutt,” released May 22 on Bloodshot Records, he noticed one coming along. He went with it.
The recurring thread, he says, can best be summed up by the song “Lily”: “The best trip is a magic one.”
Characters in his poetic story songs are often on journeys, and often in the case of those on “Mutt,” on the kind that repeat themselves needlessly.
“Few songwriters sum up the contradictions of beery romance - of bad men drinking in barrooms, of heartbreakers darkening your door - with quite as much grit, wit and compassion as Branan,” noted Paste magazine in a review of the album.
Branan’s journey continues with a string of tour dates that will bring him to George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville for a show on Wednesday night. Oklahoma native Audra Mae will perform as the opening act.
Although the album itself may have a unifying theme, Branan himself is much harder to contain. “Mutt,” after all, is named for his tendency to be a mixture of genres, styles and moods. People kept asking him if he was a rock or folk artist. Or Americana, which he dips into from time to time. He just started to tell them he was a mutt.
Those disparities comethrough on the album, something he fully recognizes.
“It has some quantum leaps on it from here to there. This one is pretty stark. I arranged the songs so the story would move,” he says.
“Mutt” took a long time to complete, but not from a lack of effort. The album is Branan’s third offering. His first, “The Hell You Say,” earned him a write-up in Rolling Stone magazine. He followed that with “12 Songs” in 2006. It would take another six years before he completed “Mutt,” taking time to tour in Europe and recording a split record with Jon Snodgrass.
Because the album was selffunded, time spent looking for a record label slowed the release but not the creative output. Branan says he had a stack of potential songs from which to choose.
On the album, he’s accompanied, though sparsely, by drums and guitars and the sounds of a full band. Live on Wednesday in a town he use to call home - he lived in an apartment near Wilson Park for a couple years before he became a true road warrior, he says - Branan will play solo.
He’ll play a few of the songs on his new album, especially those that are fresh on his mind, then he promises to take a few requests.
Whats Up, Pages 15 on 07/13/2012