Johnson sees his characters, and his new songs, as “familiar but unique.” The songs, he says “sound sort of like you’ve heard them before,” and the characters seem vaguely familiar as well.
The music connected with the characters owes a much greater debt to primitive Americana than any of Johnson’s previous efforts. The songs are less complex and more accessible than their predecessors.
In a way, Johnson has become his own influences. The new characters and their forthcoming successors give Johnson a vehicle for creating a complete persona for each individual album while simultaneously crafting an interlocking mythology upon which the songs are based and relating that mythology to the world we live in.
McAlister, discovering the ability to play guitar only after a debilitating head injury, represents the idea that there must be loss to balance gain. His music marks a sort of rebirth. There are aspects of both the seasons and the sacrifice for redemption inherent in McAlister’s character.
Shoe is almost the antithesis of McAlister. Remaining with his parents he escapes from the world while McAlister escapes into it. McAlister’s quest and Shoe’s continual tinkering are both attempts to fix a world they see as less than perfect if not downright broken. It is certain though, that despite efforts to remedy the situation, both men are escaping. Neither fits well into the world. In both cases each act of creation is an achievement of escape. Each song brings the imagined character a little closer to achieving creation of a new and unique reality.
The story does not end with Vernon and Charlie. The Lost Symphony of blind street musician and one-man-band Duvall Rey and the recordings of Rosco Houndstooth who thought the electric guitar he’s been given was a radio and kept trying to tune in music. will add more depth to the musical mythology Johnson is creating.
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