Wisconsin is my home. Let me lay out my reasons for finding this song — this desert-influenced, open road-inspired song — as comforting and familiar to me as the shores of Lake Michigan. Maybe you will, too. Never been to New Mexico? Have no connection to Texas? No spring training baseball memories from Arizona? Don’t let the song’s title or its opening lines discourage your interest. “Gallup, NM” is just as approachable and inviting to a Northerner as “Minnesota, WI.” Probably just as relevant to the area as well.
The next entry in Justin Vernon’s public travel journal comes to us via blues trio, The Shouting Matches. Formed in Eau Claire, WI in 2006, personal success and fame allowed the trio to reunite seven years later at a small gathering known as Coachella. As another tangent (hard to call these side projects at this point) stemming from Bon Iver fame, The Shouting Matches may record again next year, in another seven years, or never. More certain are the reasons to enjoy the album now.
While Phil Cook and Brian Moen form one of Vernon’s more established backing bands, it is Vernon’s familiarity with them that makes the biggest impact. They know each other, grew up together, and have slept on the concept of Grownass Man for the better part of a decade. The LP has a natural and personal feel usually unattainable in album debuts. Most of Vernon’s offshoots stem from personal relationships, but this appears to the first rooted in blues. Blues benefits from such trust, as the guitar solo gracing “Gallup, NM” appears relaxed and soulful. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find that the studio version was at least partially improvised. Comfort level and the nature of the genre lead to the complete absence of auto-tune and the near absence of Vernon’s signature falsetto. This glimpse into Vernon jamming with his pals should be reason enough for a listen. If not, let’s get back to me.
Wisconsin will always be my home. Three local artists still spending time and making music in Western Wisconsin make up The Shouting Matches. Plus, I like road trips. Never heard my own song on the radio before but that’s good enough, right? Then there’s the movie The Sandlot, 1993’s epic summer flick and without a doubt the best film of all-time. That film introduced me to Booker T & the MG’s “Green Onions” and ever since, organ does it for me. Any kind. So yeah, I like “Gallup, NM.”