by Dominic Acito (@mycamgrlromance)
There are few albums where a singular musician with a guitar can leave the listener wholly entranced. Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changing, Sibylle Baier's Colour Green, and Townes Van Zants Live at the Old Quarter come to mind. Gareth Liddiard's Strange Tourist is among those albums, but the collection of songs that fully realizes Liddiard as a solo performer is the recently released The Bootlick Series Volume 1. (2006-2016). The album name itself is a play on Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series of album outtakes and live performances that are released yearly. The Bootlick Series more closely resembles Townes Van Zant's Live at the Old Quarter, with visceral storytelling interspersed with personable and comedic anecdotes by Liddiard.
In his songwriting, Liddiard embodies different characters and imbues them with his incredible command of the English language. Throughout this album, we are given short stories from the perspective of a mailman, a sailor, an executioner, and a tightrope walker's assistant. The songs themselves are dark and intense, but between songs, Liddiard is upbeat and personable, admitting that he almost feels compelled to lighten the mood. For fans, the highlights of this collection are songs previously not released on studio recordings, which include acoustic reworkings of songs written for The Drones and a Warren Zevon cover.
Liddiard reworks three songs from The Drones. The song "I Can Stand in Your Moat," which, upon its initial release was the white-knuckle, lyrics-spit-in-your-face song ,"A Moat You Can Stand In." On The Bootlick Series, however, it's slowed down and contemplative, where the masterful lyrics take center stage. The acoustic reworking of "Words from the Executioner to Alexander Pearce" and "Shark Fin Blues" also have the same effect. However, these songs are more closely related to their studio versions. These acoustic versions emphasize the lyrics and vocals, while the song is given a new, even creepier feeling by being performed by a lone singer-songwriter.
You'd likely be forgiven for mistaking "My Shits Fucked Up" as a song written by Gareth Liddiard. This Warren Zevon classic has a similar sense of humor that Liddiard sings as comfortably as if it were his own song. Unfortunately, while this is one of the most enjoyable songs in the collection, it suffers from a reduced-quality recording, but Liddiard's performance still shines through.
Liddiard's guitar playing is incredibly unique; you can tell it's him playing as he strikes the first few chords. Notes clang and buzz at times, which from any other guitar player would be an irritation, but this only serves to the rawness of the emotion on display as he tells these harrowing stories. There's an energy to these recordings that is absent from studio albums. Liddiard is comfortable with the songs, having played them many nights on tour and free from the studio anxieties that accompany the writing process.
While these recordings are excellent versions of already released music, they bring new life to the songs. These recordings show the flexibility of great songwriting in that the same song can be played in different ways and be enjoyable for different reasons. The songs from Liddiard's only solo album, Strange Tourist, which make up the rest of the album, are also given new life. Sometimes, the lyrics are spoken differently, or the melody takes a different turn, making them stand apart from their studio versions despite having the same instrumentation.
The Bootlick Series Volume 1 is an incredible collection of songs. The promise of future releases that its title suggests is exciting, especially since Liddiard has many new songs from various projects (Tropical Fuck Storm, Springtime) that would sound excellent if they were given the same new life he gives to these songs.