Briscoe - West of It All (2023) Hi-Res

West of It All, the debut album from Americana folk-rock band Briscoe, is a coming-of-age soundtrack set against the backdrop of the Texas Hill Country. Written in the Lone Star State and recorded in North Carolina, it's an album that charts its own musical geography and adventurous songwriting that bridges the gap between classic American roots music and its modern-day incarnation.

Friends since they were 14, Philip Lupton and Truett Heintzelman first performed together at summer camp (a cover of John Prine's "Paradise") and formed their vocal-forward duo Briscoe as University of Texas undergrads. Both play guitar and have singing voices that work well alone and together. Lupton also plays alto saxophone, which adds a jazzy touch to certain songs, and the banjo, an unlikely ingredient in much new music today. For the sessions on their debut album, West Of It All, the duo became a quintet with the addition of drummer Matthew McCaughan (Bon Iver), slide guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger) and bassist and producer Brad Cook (Megafaun, Bon Iver, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats).

After several EPs, the pair show a dedicated striving for laid back melodic hooks and a dusty, Eagles-meets-Simon & Garfunkel tang in their tunes. The sound is simple, mostly acoustic and mercifully unadorned by electronics. Their youth shows in lyrics that tend to speak of relationships in sunny, hopeful terms as in the smooth and sweet "Coyotes" where they find joy in verses like, "Hey baby we'll never die, forever young it's you and I/ Let's listen to the coyotes howl our names into the night," before they come together come together to howl "ah-ooh" as a chorus. In "Wild Thing" the harmonies soar as they marvel over a woman: "Her beauty explains the wonders of this world/ I've seen many things but nothing quite like that girl." Endearments like "baby" and "darlin'" populate the folky banjo-led rave up, "High on You," where the duo are proud to declare, "And I won't be coming down, no ma'am, anytime soon." The only downbeat notes come in "Sparrows," where, "I just can't seem to give you something to believe in/ 'Cause heaven knows you never did in me." A promising start for a young Americana duo with more to learn about love.