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Title: Grappling in the dark and then actually finding something
Review: Buckner gets filed under the alt.country tag more often than not, but as early as "Devotion + Doubt" it was clear he was on a path far more singular than any broadstroke labelling could adequately describe. Here, lyrically, Buckner was still adhering to narrative - although narrative filled with obscure imagery and poetic juxtaposition - but his music had already started to flee tradition. His "Devotion + Doubt" band included similarly stubborn iconoclasts such as Marc Ribot and Howe Gelb, and subsequently the music effortlessly bent into a sublime melding of muted jazz and obtuse country. Most of that "country" springs from Buckner's voice, a plaintive baritone that wavers on each syllable like it's on a constant, doomed search for the proper notes. Which is only appropriate, because constant, doomed searching is what Buckner's all about.
