Glossary -- The Better Angels of Our Nature

Glossary played here in Chattanooga several weeks ago. Not knowing anything about the southern rock/indie band from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, I decided not to attend their show at JJ’s Bohemia. Big mistake.

Curious to find out what I missed, I found the band’s web site the next day and discovered they were offering their newest album, The Better Angels of Our Nature as a free download. Skeptical, I downloaded it, figuring I'd listen to it once and then file it away in my CD collection. I mean, it’s free, right? How good could it be? I soon found out. It was really good…damn good. I haven't been able to stop listening to it. A blend of rock, blues, country and soul, the band’s fifth full-length album is satisfyingly rich and layered with scratchy guitar hooks, gospel-like vocals, and superbly wise songwriting.

According to the band’s singer/sonwriter/guitarist Joey Kneiser, “I wanted to write songs that were about the great attributes of being human: love, forgiveness, redemption, mercy, second chances.”

The album starts out with a dainty, dancing guitar lick on “If Only Time Will Tell,” slowly stretching out into a hard-edged, electric guitar-driven hymn voiced by Kneiser and his wife Kelly, who sounds like one of the angels in which the album title is referring.

Kneiser’s lyrics and Todd Beene’s pedal steel invoke various images of southern living throughout the album; a tired old man on the run from his past in “Gasoline Soaked Heart,” someone struggling to hold onto the past in “Blood on the Knobs.” Matt Rowland’s piano, together with Kneiser’s electric guitar and Todd Beene’s pedal steel, form a rousing, honky-tonk flavor of a song with “Almsgiver” and “Nothing Can Hurt You Now” has remnants of early ‘80s R.E.M. thanks to Eric Giles’ smashing cymbals and skins and the static fuzz from Kneiser’s guitar.

"Little Caney" -- one of the strongest songs on the album – is a fun, free-spirited rocker about accepting the past and looking to the future. It has the feel of riding in a convertible with the top down on a hot summer day. It's a classic Springsteen album, say...The Wild, the Innocent, and the E. Street Shuffle but with a southern flavor to it.

On “Shout it From the Rooftops,” a tune about religion in the South, Kneisser and his wife preach their own version of the Gospel:

Watch out for churches that have been built Brick by brick on self-interest Neon crucifixes glowing in shame Villainous voices saying ‘as god as my witness’

The Better Angels of Our Nature is one of those rare albums these days that allows you room to explore it over time. It’s not something you can listen to without wanting to dig a little deeper. The music attracts you first, then the lyrics pull you in. Anyone who listens to this album will find it hard not to relate to its timeless themes.

Glossary just started a five-and-a-half week tour with the Memphis-based band Lucero and they’ll be travelling as far west as California. Hopefully, they’ll make it back down here soon after they get back because you can bet your bottom I’ll be there.

Glossary played the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas this past March and was named Paste Magazine’s “Band of the Week” in 2006.

To download Glossary’s new album The Better Angels of Our Nature for free or to order the limited run CD with artwork by Nick Butcher, check out their web site at http://glossary.us/. If they’re coming to a city near you, don’t follow my example. Go out and see them immediately. You won't regret it.