Richard Buckner
Dents And Shells
Release Date: Oct 12, 2004
Genre(s): Indie, Rock, Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Record label: Merge
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Album Review: Dents And Shells by Richard Buckner
Excellent, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
There are three kinds of American folk artist: those who sit, contented, on a back porch contemplating America's landscape and ways; those for whom its landscape and ways are something to stand against or move boldly through; and those whose America is a shadowy, impressionistic place that moves inside of them. This is the area that the sombre-voiced Richard Buckner has been exploring since 1994, after leaving alt.country band the Doubters. In his five solo albums since, his music has become internalised and impressionistic.
Opinion: Very Good
It's been exactly 10 years since the release of Richard Buckner's debut record, Bloomed, and in that time he's issued eight full-lengths on five labels, chronicled the disintegration of two marriages, lived north, south, east, and west (Edmonton, Austin, Brooklyn, San Francisco), and played your town more often than anybody. But in the same way that itinerancy is just a camouflaged form of consistency, Buckner's music only changes in subtle gradations. His hallmark is still that deep, rich, smoldering voice – as indescribable and unmistakable as the taste of hard water or the smell of burning leaves.