Cormac McCarthy has created a series of songs that bring a sense of dignity to the oral tradition of lyric poetry. The songs are deeply personal stories without a linear narrative. McCarthy uses visual references, literary metaphor and poetic images to create a 'picture gallery' that allows the listener to bring the enigmatic characters to life for ourselves. We meet the writer on an aural landscape painted with an eye and an ear for careful attention to detail and a deep respect for the written word.
Contemporary references underscore an urgency that belies the abandonment of both time and locale.
It's as if he has written the songs as captions for Walker Evans' photos. Pieces of melody are inseparably married to a lyric as literary images that won't let go, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two. The Blues, as referred to by the title of the album, is McCarthy's interpretation of the nature of Blues. He sees them as a celebratory act of singing and playing themes of unending despair, loneliness, betrayal, and loss, thereby casting off the yoke of the singer as victim. The joy of performance is in evidence by both the singer and the musicians.