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“I pulled these songs from a batch of fifty that mostly predate the pandemic, and all of these felt kin. They’re about doubt, loss, depression, general stir-craziness.

“But I knew I didn’t want to make a record that pondered itself, I wanted it to have motion, so I gave this record an overarching rule: The sadder the song, the more it had to move and groove. That’s how the country weeper ‘That Look I Lost’ got the Motown treatment. I wanted you to nod along, then after listening ask, Wait, what am I shaking my ass to?”

When I Go I Ghost is Cory Branan’s sixth full length release. His first was 20 years ago: He ain’t  banging out pulp here.  A writer’s writer, Cory’s lines grip like a page-turner, giddy with interior rhyming and wordplay:

I took a shower but the shower didn’t take
– “O’ Charlene”

the kinda wreck I recognize
– “C’Mon If You Wanna Come”

You post a picture, notice the mixture
The camera captures
That ‘before and after’ look in your eye
– “C’Mon If You Wanna Come”

When she’s staring down the bad end of the barrel
Of yet another long and loaded night
– “That Look I Lost”

One propulsive song that jangles with hope is “Come On If You Wanna Come,” with lyrics about being too depressed – maybe too hungover – to venture out, accompanied by music that catches the buoyancy one feels after recovering. “’Come On’ is about as optimistic as I can get. We did all the fun Simmons 1980’s drum samples on there, and added concert toms, putting reverse gated reverb on the drums – an old ‘80s Cars-era trick. There’s Rickenbacker and a 12 string guitar. It’s a respite in the record. It evokes the Traveling Wilbury’s, though maybe a meth-y Wilburys.”

For most of his twenties, Minnesota musician James Eugene Russell spent his days zigzagging the country in various vans playing in hard working punk bands like Cadillac Blindside, The Book of Dead Names, and The Cardinal Sin. He then began exploring new sounds with his country rock outfit, Prairie Sons. After Prairie Sons disbanded, James spent over a decade absent from the music scene dealing with alcoholism, becoming a father, and finally finding sobriety.

His first release as a solo artist, ‘As/Is’ showcases a collection of four songs that suggest James has a much clearer head and a lot to get off his chest. They are four of the many songs that James picked and penned out while on the couch during the past ten years, and having no idea on how they would ever come to fruition. This past decade’s struggles have shaped James into the introspective and mature singer/songwriter that he is today, making songs that shine stripped down solo, as well as with a band. Drawing from the venerable classic country music genre as well as his own punk rock narrative, James Eugene Russell melds all of his life experience into a sound that he describes as “country midwestern”. ‘As/Is’ is a truthful, gut-wrenching journey through his last decade of change.