For all the good things that Nashville and its ecosystem of music scenes can be and do, even those who experience it at its best need a break sometimes. A group of Music City MVP musicians who you’ve heard in a wide variety of contexts decamped to a remote U.K. studio called Chale Abbey (situated in a former monastery on the Isle of Wight) and returned with a rambling, unfussy gem called Echolalia.
Released in February, the 13-track album shares its name with the ensemble. Most everyone involved shares songwriting credit and many are multi-instrumentalists. Vocalists and principal writers are Spencer Cullum Jr., Jordan Lehning, Andrew Combs and Dominic Billett, who were aided by guitar wiz Juan Solorzano and bassist Eli Beaird. Lehning’s brother Jason Lehning engineered the recording and added keys and synths.
The resulting baker’s dozen of tracks, while very “un-Nashville” per the liner notes, offer a special window into the talent and creativity these folks have brought to the various scenes they’ve been part of, as well as what being part of them has given back. The main mode is a kind of pastoral psychedelia — the contemplative vibe is akin to the two volumes so far assembled of Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection — and it’s clear that the crew is cutting loose. But even the cheeky closer “In the Pub” (as much a comedy sketch as a song, its sonic and thematic Venn diagram includes The Velvet Underground, The Kinks and, I dunno, The Jesus Lizard) isn’t haphazard slop. It’s what you notice when you stop for a bit and appreciate what’s around you, which is the whole purpose of this exercise.
