RICHMOND FONTAINE

The High Country
El Cortez [09/13/2011]

Over the past decade or so, singer/songwriter Willy Vlautin, the de facto leader of Portand Oregon’s Richmond Fontaine, has expanded his resume by venturing into the world of literature. He’s written three novels to date, each of which find their focus in characters that have been stricken by desperation and desire. The synthesis of music and the printed page took flight with his second book, Northline, which melded the story’s darker designs with an accompanying CD.

With The High Country, Vlautin and company blur the boundaries even further by turning the album into a gothic soap opera, one that blends themes of love, lust and longing into its dark underbelly. The story line is set up in a spoken preamble: a girl from a dysfunctional family becomes pregnant out of wedlock, forcing her marriage to the young man responsible. She miscarries in the eighth month of pregnancy, he’s subsequently crippled in a logging accident, their marriage crumbles around her and calamity ensues. Consequently, the 17 selections – comprising both songs and dialogue – follow that tragic theme and emphasize the tale’s darkness and despair. There’s a haunting, subdued sound imbued in songs like “Let Me Dream of the High Country,” “The Girl on the Logging Road,” “Claude Murray’s Breakdown” and in fact, most of the material here. It’s not exactly the most uplifting album, but the sentiment will sweep you away.
--Lee Zimmerman

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