3 out of 5

Label: VHF Records

Produced by: Rob Vaughn (engineered, mastered, mixed by)

I very much appreciate what Liam Grant is putting down here – a type of direct-to-tape take on Appalachia, adding an almost indie bite to a down-home style – but I think one’s appreciation of Prodigal Son will hinge on Grant’s choices of covers: taking on Loren Mazzacane Connors on the B-side’s A Moment at the Door, backed up by a guitar, banjo and fiddle version of William Moore‘s Old Country Rock. Personally, I have a hard time with minimalism like Connors’, though I’ve often appreciated how Loren leaned into what environment in which he was recording to milk the most out of space and the richness of the paced sounds his instrument would make; there’s something swirling between Grant covering a classic folk tune and one of the masters of sparseness that equates to… a pleasant middleground. The music isn’t quite as nostalgic or festive as Black Twig Pickers, nor as dense as Jack Rose, nor does it get to the mesmeric qualities of some of Pelt’s more ragga-y works, all three of those fellow VHF-ers heard across Prodigal Son.

Opener Palmyra’s distorted slides vibe with that aforementioned indieness – the album has an appreciated rawness. Followup Salmon Tails Up The River pokes at combining that with more traditional Appalachia pokey, but this is where some comparative shallowness seeps into the recording, and by the time of the Connors cover, as much as I dig tape hiss – I miss the depth and reverb of the original. The music here just doesn’t quite dig into me as other similar artists’ tunes can.

That said, I do appreciate the relative range on display, and the music is by no means unpleasant. Noting that Grant’s credits (as per Discogs) only seem to go back a few years, that also means I can look forward to some more maturity in future releases, which I’m sure will be worth checking out.