Rose City Band - Earth Trip

To say that Ripley Johnson has been a major figure in the modern psych scene is something of an understatement. As the front man for both Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, he has pushed two different takes on psychedelic music, though both very much use repetition as a part of their arsenal. With Rose City Band (oddly not actually a band, just Ripley Johnson) he has taken a different route, the most musical (that’s a crap term, but it’s the best I can do) offering to date, with a hazy psychedelic take on americana. Whereas Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo are music for dark and dingy clubs (I’m speaking from experience here), Rose City Band work best baking in the sunshine with a BBQ and a cold beer, or perhaps something stronger.

This is the third album in as many years as Rose City Band, and like a fine wine it improves with age. Things kick off with the beautifully woozy Silver Roses, like a lot of the album there is a wonderfully deployed pedal steel underpinning things, and the track feels almost dreamlike. In The Rain comes in with harmonica and acoustic guitar leading the way, supported by a gently picked lead guitar, and at nearly 8 minutes takes you on a blissful journey.

On World Is Turning a mandolin lead reminds you just how far you are from the intense throb of Moon Duo, before Feel of Love dials the wooziness right back up.

The press release for Earth Trip states that it investigates our interconnectedness with the environment, expanding on a long country music tradition that draws a symbiotic relationship between storyteller and the land, celebrating the beauty of the natural world without forgetting our responsibility to preserve it for future generations. This is very much apparent throughout from the song titles, the lyrics and, without wanting to be too pretentious, the music too.