Jon Fox- American Dirt (click on image to watch video)

 21 February 2020

It would be easy to simply classify Jon Fox’s music as Americana, alongside a slew of other newer musicians coming out of the Southeast, but you’d be missing the nuisances. Yes, there is definitely a strong country core to most of the songs off his latest record, American Dirt, but there is also a rock vibe - not unlike the music of Steve Earle or John Hiatt - that is hard to ignore here; Fox is just as likely to plug in a Strat as he is to pick up an acoustic guitar, while the New Orleans piano rolls on “Baby Don’t You Leave Me” brings to mind, Delbert McClinton. 

It’s the varied influences that provide most of the charm on American Dirt, but it’s the slick over-production that really takes some of that appeal away. Part of the draw of country and Americana is the authenticity that comes from the organic sound, rough edges and all. Most of that is lost, however, due to the bright sheen that coats this record. Even a song like “It Ain’t Rain,” a farmer’s lament about struggle and worry, which could have had a strong impact, is lost thanks to the sterility of production. It’s the difference between a clean-shaven Willie Nelson working the Nashville system with a full, sappy string section and the King of Outlaw Country with authenticity to his sound (and a bag of weed in his back pocket).  

There are the makings of a solid record here, unfortunately, it gets lost under too much polish.                    

John B. Moore has been covering the seemingly disparate, but surprisingly complimentary genres of Americana and punk rock for the past 20 years.

Blurt/New Noise Magazine/InSite Atlanta/NeuFutur Magazine

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