LEAVING TIME

How can a cowboy coma be so sexy?

Artwork by Kevin Russell

Shinyribs, aka Kevin Russell, is an earworm-slinger who has created another wriggle of fan-dancing, jewel-encrusted worms shakin’ booties in my head.

"Leaving Time" holds 12 quanta of his plucked and polished addictive sonic jewels. Any time I hear a new song or album it takes me a moment to absorb its magic molecules into my lusty soul.

Kevin never fails to seduce me. He conjures a groove that is inextricably and inseparably connected to a melody, so it either grabs me by surprise or flows gradually through according to its alchemy. One of the charms of his music is the alchemy of elements - his voice, with its regional authenticity; the inspired melodies, with immense depth and breadth; the rhythms of his natural bearing; his visual fascinations; humor and pathos entwined; unrelenting wit with nods to the Holy Fool; and rich content that comes from the depths of his animated soul. Each part is necessary to the whole, and once connected, they become one inseparable force of creative expansion.

All of his songs are love songs. He’s in love with life and devours it with the passion of a new lover smitten with the drunken magic of the fall. You can feel it in his words and melodies as they lay bare the rhythmic insistence of his soul’s raw laments. These aren’t your pedestrian, self-indulgent singer-songwriter love songs that make you sleepy. These are sassy sonoric prayers of a lusty life that come from the altar of a shamanic Texas poet.

Kevin Russell has the guts to be himself, or should I say selves, in a field where inspiration is often lost in the pockets of producers and money men. Shinyribs is one of his more sparkly and gregarious selves. My nickname for him, Mr. Multitude, is about his many facets that congeal into a singular shamanic vision of colorful and creative joy.

He doesn't take himself too seriously, though his life's trajectory is a sacred and serious calling. His art, and how he manifests it, is embedded in his spirit. Without it he wouldn't exist. Everything he does is drenched in his passionate devouring of life and all its sparkling facets. It's the light that entrances him. He pays it the loving favor of reflecting it back into a swirling dance of syncopated funky-butt musical love-making. He coruscates!

Each of the following morsels is full of life, love, and the joyful embrace of artful expression, starting with the title song:

LEAVING TIME—————————————————————————————————————

I don't know when I've heard such a deliciously gorgeous and joyous musical ode to death.

This poetic sound painting enriches my heart with shafts of color, and it swings, to boot! Each element is crafted with tenderness and reverence to life's profound, yet sometimes prickly, procession. It contains layers of longing and desire, and deep reverence for the beauty of a world disappearing into a dream.

CRY YER WAY——————————————————————————————————————

This caresses my soul more deeply each time I hear it. Within it are musical phrases that keep me engaged, off and on, all day long. In my mind is a whole video that plays out onto a sunset highway, horizon sizzling with heat waves. In the back seat of a brown hooded Buick is a battered black case holding a heartbroken 11-string guitar.

It's full of evocative images that burn with the heat of the story. You can feel the sear as tears dry too quickly to flow. In the dust of leaving is painful residue breathing its heart-worn melody, gasping for relief.

SHITTY MUSIC——————————————————————————————————————

This shitty little ditty clips you right off with its funky fun rhythm as it takes you on a pretty witty ride. You shake your head in agreement and shake your tail feathers to the rumba beat. How great is a song that makes you laugh as you dance to NOT shitty music?! And it rolls right into a love song and back into the funkiness in a few beats. And you dance!

DRINKIN’ NIGHT——————————————————————————————————————

“….on this little blue ball” is an earworm unto itself. There’s something about the way he sings this phrase that gives me a smile. You find yourself there, in the darkened, smoky glare of this little blue ball. The melody carries you into an inebriated psyche professing heartbreaking truths only alcohol can tell.

SALT ON MY TAIL————————————————————————————————————

There is an old superstition that sprinkling salt on a bird’s tail will keep it grounded. It won’t be able to fly away, and makes it easier to catch. It has also become an idiom meaning to trap, immobilize, or capture someone.

This catchy tune is about not getting caught. Flying high on the freedom of soaring updrafts, floating and twirling ‘round the clouds, this tune takes you on a bird’s eye flight with a bit of gleeby rhythm in the feathers. The birdies in the trees are groovin’ to this tune — little bird toons with happy feet, singin’ “Bye, bye, Baby, Baby bye, bye”.

LEAVING LOUISIANA BLUES——————————————————————————————

The gorgeous, hearbreak of leaving is rolled into the shadows of moss-draped highways through Texarkana…..as the red glow of tail lights fade in a trance. You can feel the movement of the car as you roll down the road, past the tears, and into the questions and wonderings of what brought you to the leavin’ road. Heartbreak behind. Hope ahead. Tears throughout.

WHY IS LOVE SO PAINFUL————————————————————————————————

“What makes love such a good song?” Good question, but one that has only one answer when it comes to Kevin Russell. His songs are the answer.

DRAG————————————————————————————————————————————

The illustrious Paula Brown loves this snappy, yummy syncopated rag that feels like a long lost friend showing up at the door with a bottle of wine. It’s also real life story-telling worthy of grins, hugs, and ‘oh, yeahs’. It’s a plucky tune about a plucky guy’s plucky day.

ONE OF THESE DAYS———————————————————————————————————

Dreaming into the wishing well of tomorrow’s musical promise, Kevin gets so passionately excited that his vocals shift into a whole other gear, digging out, laying rubber, and spraying gravel with joy. This is a love song disguised as a second-line parade roll out in a buggy. Funky and fun!

UNREQUITED LOVE————————————————————————————————————

“Unrequited love” hits me right in the sacral chakra. This is a painting, with a slight erotic tinge, created with musical instruments, lyrics, and unearthly sounds. The melody is a misty dream with colors of dusk and longing as deep as the evening sky. The lyrics and images are intimately poetic and sublime.

It shakes free every molecule of romantic longing in my body and swirls it into the universal song of lovelight that connects all quanta. You can feel its pulse beating in sync with your own as testimony to music as magic. It is beauty as sound and sound as beauty.

THAT AND $20———————————————————————————————————————

The superbly adept talking, walking bass of Mason Hankhamer drives this funky tune into the garage after all the driving and leaving. It’s time to open the driver’s door, leave the wheel, and to take a walk down the street for a little pondering on fate’s romantic decisions. Won’t cost more than $20.

SUNDOWN ON MARS———————————————————————————————————

How many Sci-fi songs about rodeo riders in a coma have you heard? This is the only one I can think of. It’s like taking a whole space ship ride wherein the astronaut plucks the heartstrings of an alien instrument that echoes throughout the cosmos. And there’s a horse on the holodeck!

The melody has the otherworldly purple gorgeousness of a glorious Western sky. How can a cowboy coma song be so sexy? If you can figure it out, please let me know.

“LEAVING TIME”, from NINE MILE RECORDS -

• Kevin Russell - vocals, guitars, ukulele

• Mason Hankhamer - basses, vocals, percussion, additional arrangements

• Jonny Keys - pianos, accordion

• Marty Muse - steel guitars, resonator slide

• Dees Stribling - drums

• David Beck - vocals, guitars, keys, drums, percussion, accordion, flute

Produced by David Beck and Mason Hankhamer

All songs by Kevin Russell except for “Shitty Music” (Kevin Russell, George Worth, Winfield Cheek); “Why Is Love So Painful” (Lyrics - Jan Van Doorn; Music - Kevin Russell)

Shinyribs, in various configurations, is currently on The Leaving Time Tour, and you can find the schedule and other info at:

https://www.shinyribs.com/

https://www.bandsintown.com/a/174350-shinyribs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinyribs