Chris Gennone is what you'd call prolific. It's hard for me to remember the number of things I've seen from him and his different projects in the last 12 months. So, a check of the old Bandcamp reveals that Salt of the Earth is Gennone's sixth release since 2015. This one comes from his C.R. and The Degenerates project; and it shows that Gennone isn't just rattling things off willy nilly. Salt of the Earth is a cohesive and thematically tight collection about, well, the salt of the earth.
The album opens with "Edge of Hell, Kansas City;" and, right away, we can feel the influences of other artists like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen who have made careers singing about the working man / woman. From a quiet intro, the song explodes into an angry squall of guitars as Gennone sings, "There's something waiting out there. What it is I can't find."
"Iron Curtain" has kind of a wide-open, driving song feel about it, which stands in contrast to lyrics that mention feeling trapped in a hotel room. Urgent harmonicas and pounding keys mix with the electric guitars into something anthemic like the big rock and roll records of my youth. "Pink Slippin'" reveals some of Gennone's other influences as it sounds like what I'm going to call Americana-shoegaze. Lines about getting pink slipped and life's endless struggle are backed by thrumming guitars that ultimately trail off into noise and feedback.
The title track sheds almost all signs of alt country or Americana in favor of psychedelic krautrock. The beat is constant and repetitive. The more I listen, the more I think that choice ties in pretty well with the song's subject matter of giving up one's dreams in favor of the daily grind.
Following that halfway marker on the record, things turn more melodic. Lap steel and banjo feature prominently in the Wilco-esque "Georgia Guarantee" and the ambling "Newport Pleasure Sickness." The latter has the great line, "Everything looked big to me when I was a kid. Now, everything looks bigger to me than it ever did." You think you got problems now, kid? Just wait til you're my age.
The album closes with the relatively straightforward country rock of "Louder Than Words." "Washing dishes in a Massachusetts town, thinking about how I let you down." The guitars wail cinematically as another of Gennone's characters reflects on his regrets.
Salt of the Earth is C.R. and The Degenerates' entry into that tradition of telling the small stories that make up the larger story of the world. There are moments here -- the folksiness, the amazing lap steel work of James Abbott -- that harken back to tried and true ways of relating those stories, but there are also moments when the band take an unexpected approach. The combination makes for an engaging and relatable listen.
Salt of the Earth is out now on Sniffling Indie Kids.
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