When last we saw Israel Nash - and that was a while ago - he was wearing unkempt hair and a long cowboy poncho, having seemingly stepped right out of Laurel Canyon in the early 1970s. The music he brought with him was also of that exact time and place - Israel Nash's Rain Plans sounded like a long-lost Neil Young record, which of course meant that together with my reworked Harvest of Uncle Neil Rain Plans became the most popular item on this blog, and - if the three popular items on the bottom of the front page tell true - still is, at least in terms of page views. Rightfully so, 'cause it's a great album, but Israel Nash is not one to sit still and dwell in what's done. His earlier album Barn Doors And Concrete Floors - whivh I picked up after Rain Plans - sounds a lot more of its time, reminding you of Son Volt and the whole No Depression scene of the 90s that it was influenced by.
But Ozarker is something else entirely, once again. Eagle-eyed and even half-blind visitors have seen that Israel Nash's return is tagged with the Born In The USA Appreciation Month tag, and there's a reason for that. Namely, that Ozarker sounds not much like Rain Plans, but it does have distant echo of - you guessed it - Bruce's mega album of the 80s. Ozarker, despite the gaudy album cover which makes you think that Nash has gone full glam, is his version of a heartland record, and, notably, a heartland record recorded in the mid-80s. You can think John Mellencamp or maybe Tom Petty, but good ol' Bruce should definitely cross your mind when you listen to this. It definitely crossed Nash's when he recorded this.
I have a theory concerning musicians of roughly my generation and slightly older. They all listened to bits and bops - if not the entire thing, of Born In The USA when they were kids, mainly because that record with its seven top ten hits was so inescapble at the time. After, when these boys grew into rock'n'rollers and and country rockers and such, they left all embarrasing memories of ever having liked "Born In The USA" or danced around to "Dancing In The Dark" behind, and focused on their more srious endeavors. But hidden deep in the lizard part of their brain is an abiding love for Born In The USA, and even its - shall we say divisive - audioscape. And that love will out, sooner or later.
Ozarker is, as the title indicates, a return to the roots. Israel Nash spent most of his life in Texas, but was born in Aurora, Missouri, and spent his childhood there. The album is, in many ways, a reflection on his growing up, the family and its roots - the title song chronicles the love story of his grandparents - and, obviously, the music that he listened to when he grew up. And if you grew up in Missouri in the early 80s, you definitely heard some heartland rock. Gripka has mentioned that he listened to two albums in the run-up to Ozarker, Tom Petty's Damn The Torpedoes and, yup, Bruce's Born In The USA. Nash even writes his own, updated version of "Born In The USA", chronicling the return of veteran's in "Lost In America". The jungles of Vietnam have been replaced by Middle East deserts, but the sentiment of being, well, lost and sold out, and full of regrets, are the same: "It was God and country, cash in hand / for a one-way ticket off to them far east blowing desert sands / I won't forgive and I can't forget / All that I saw an those thigs that I did". Another long-gone daddy in the U.S.A, now...
Listen to opener "Can't Stop": Once you get past the moody, synth-backed opening and the chorus kicks in, you'd think this is a Tom Petty outtake. As in, a really good Tom Petty outtake. "Roman Candle" fleetingly makes youthink of another heartland rocker, good ol' Bob Seger. But let's be very clear: These aren't Ryan Adams-style pastiches of things he likes, these are Nash's songs cast in the shadow of those heratland rockers you would hear in a small town in the Ozarks in the early and mid-80s. There's even some 'Sha-La-la's' on the title song that seem to be imported directly from Bruce's record, and "Pieces" sound like it could have been written as such by the man himself. Considering the records that inspired this, Ozarker's sound is slightly synthetic and huge, as it should be. You go mid-80s heartland rock, go fuckin' hard and really freakin' big.
Ozarker is a fantastic album, if you like Petty, if you like Springsteen, or if you just like damn good rock music with an honest country heart. A concise ten track, 45 minute set of wonderful country-tinged heartland rock, that shows again why Mr. Nash is an underrated American treasure.
