{"id":36068,"date":"2016-10-06T16:12:44","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T21:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=36068"},"modified":"2016-10-11T13:19:41","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T18:19:41","slug":"country-cool-at-the-canoe-susto-gears-up-for-national-stage-with-a-rocking-set-in-tupelo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/country-cool-at-the-canoe-susto-gears-up-for-national-stage-with-a-rocking-set-in-tupelo\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Cool at the Canoe: SUSTO Gears up for National Stage with a Rocking Set in Tupelo"},"content":{"rendered":"

TUPELO, MISS. (TLV) – Something undeniably sincere, something pleading, and perhaps even a little bitter came through, something that rang true with the crowd when lead singer Justin Osborne<\/strong> of the band Susto<\/strong> crooned, \u201cWe\u2019re all pilgrims, we\u2019re all strangers, in this land we are just traveling through.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Those listening were as used to sitting on uncomfortable wooden church pews as on uncomfortable wooden bar stools. Osborne sang as if from a pulpit, delivering the dolorous chorus of \u201cBlack River Gospel,\u201d one of several disquietingly charming numbers on the band\u2019s self-titled debut album to a packed house at the Blue Canoe<\/strong> in Tupelo<\/strong>, Mississippi,\u00a0on October 5. A few songs later, Osborne, front man for the Charleston, South Carolina-based band, drove home the message of Southern connectedness and familiarity, singing as if he were offering \u00a0a prayer at suppertime, \u201cYour county line, ain\u2019t far from mine.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Susto\u2019s sophomore album\u00a0&<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019m Fine Today<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0was set to debut in January and the band was gearing up for a 17-city tour with the Denver-based folk-rock band The Lumineers<\/strong>\u00a0as well as an appearance on Austin City Limits<\/strong> on October 7.
\n\"susto\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The members of Susto were endearingly and unpretentiously slovenly in appearance, with Osborne donning dark jeans and sneakers, staring out from under a tattered ball cap that shaded his kind yet sad eyes. This was the antitheses of glam rock and pop-country. The band took the stage in the same clothes in which they\u2019d piled out of their modest touring van to scarf cheeseburgers and set up their instruments. Susto hadn\u2019t come to swing from the rafters and explode pyrotechnics. They\u2019d simply come to play good music for good people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with guitarist and keyboardist Johnny Delaware<\/strong>, drummer Marshall Hudson<\/strong>, bassist Jenna Desmond<\/strong>, and guitarist and keyboardist Corey Campbell<\/strong>, Osborne stood on the Cathead Stage in northwest Tupelo, awash in warm, honeyed light with a cool, blue backlight. His own signature and those of his bandmates were scrawled in Sharpie on the back wall of the stage, along with scores of other bands that had visited the venue. The clich\u00e9d term \u201cintimate setting\u201d didn\u2019t suffice for a place in which Osborne could literally have reached out and plucked a few succulent, dripping cheese fries from a nearby table. A slate board on the wall declared that Indian-spiced macaroni and cheese was the chef\u2019s feature of the evening, and posters of Blues legends Howlin\u2019 Wolf<\/strong> and Muddy Waters<\/strong> stared menacingly across the teeming front of the house.\"img_0178\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Some lyrical sequences can\u2019t be faked or dreamed up. They either have to be earned and paid for with life experience or they come to a songwriter in a kind of shamanistic trance. In the song \u201cHard Drugs,\u201d for example, Osborne, bidding farewell to a girlfriend, with whom he was immersed in addiction, sang, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t care who\u2019s asking, but you can tell em\u2019 the truth, I\u2019ve had longtime struggle, with substance abuse.\u201d In later verses, the lyric changed, gratifyingly, and excruciatingly, to, \u201cWell I don\u2019t know who\u2019s asking, but I can tell em\u2019 the truth, I\u2019ve had a real hard time, losing you.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

After the show, Osborne talked about his writing process. \u201cAll of our songs have a confessional quality,\u201d he said. \u201cThis song was based on an ongoing relationship that I have, and maybe that\u2019s why it resonates with people.\u201d \u00a0Although he\u2019s no longer religious, Christianity and the piety and ceremony that are part of it occupy a big space in the landscape of his imagination, Osborne said, which explains why so many of his songs have a quasi-spiritual tenor, he said. When Osborne finished wailing the last note of \u201cHard Drugs,\u201d with a flash of good-natured bravado, he titled back a pint glass of amber ale, wiped the froth from his mustache with the back of his wrist, and hollered, \u201cWho likes the books of the late Oxford author Larry Brown?\u201d\"susto7\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Susto segued into the surprisingly sprightly \u201cBlack Jesus,\u201d with Hudson alternatively dropping his foot gently on the bass drum and tapping the high hat. \u201cCome on, Black Jesus,\u201d the band implored softly, in unison, as if swaying together in a robed church choir, or moaning a field chant. \u201cCome on, Black Jesus.\u201d After several refrains, Osborne leaped into the whispering midst with a violent admonition, shouting in a haggard, confrontational voice, \u201cCome on, Black Jesus!\u201d Just as suddenly, as if Osborne, caught up in the Spirit, had been taken by the arm by a demure deacon, the singer relinquished his passion, and an acoustic guitar trickled in. Like polite organ music, drowning out the sobs during an altar call, the guitar filled the void left by Osborne\u2019s insurgent vocals. The song took on a buoyant pace as Osborne sang, almost whimsically, \u201cI saw him on the side of a mountaintop, looking down at the people below. He said, \u2018Hey ya\u2019ll don\u2019t you get caught up in the things that come and go.\u2019\u201d After the show Osborne said that the song is based on a collection of experiences he had intermingling with the black community, learning their folkways and imbibing their musical and spiritual traditions.\"susto-1\"<\/span><\/p>\n

During a break in the set, Chris Vasquez<\/strong> and Jake Jones<\/strong>, both of Tupelo, who\u2019d been standing in front of the stage in arm\u2019s reach of the band, talked about Susto\u2019s refreshing sound. \u201cThey\u2019re true to their roots in country, yet they\u2019re kind of an alternative, Indy-type band,\u201d said Vasquez. Jones concurred. \u201cIt\u2019s old-fashioned but with an urban speed to it,\u201d he said, nodding his head and clinking his glass against Vasquez\u2019s. \u201cHe\u2019s vulnerable in his lyrics,\u201d Jones said of Osborne. Jones looked over his shoulder at the band, conversing with patrons at their tables, and smiled. \u201cI could tell they were holding back a bit,\u201d Jones said, almost laughing. \u201cThey could really have cut it lose, but they controlled things nicely.\u201d Jones nodded again, as if agreeing with the band\u2019s reserve. \u201cThis is good music,\u201d Jones said.\u00a0\"The<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TUPELO, MISS. (TLV) – Something undeniably sincere, something pleading, and perhaps even a little bitter came through, something<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":36127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[2122,931,9376,9383,9377,9382,9380,9378,9381,5,2892,9375,9379,187],"class_list":["post-36068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-shows","tag-blue-canoe","tag-charleston","tag-chris-vasquez","tag-corey-campbell","tag-jake-jones","tag-jenna-desmond","tag-johnny-delaware","tag-justin-osborne","tag-marshall-hudson","tag-mississippi","tag-south-carolina","tag-susto","tag-the-lumineers","tag-tupelo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/SUSTO-FEAT.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}