Two Saviors

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Buck Meek released his first solo material, a three-song live album, in 2013. Backing him on the recording was soon-to-be bandmate Adrianne Lenker, and both musicians solo endeavors were soon sidelined to a significant degree by the success and continual touring of their band, Big Thief, which formed the following year. Meek did manage to put out an eponymous solo debut on the Austin-based Keeled Scales label in 2018. It was an introduction for many to his rustic, winsome, empathic songs, which carry touches of the country and jazz manouche of the Texas natives formative playing. Performed live in the studio sans headphones and recorded to eight-track tape, the follow-up, Two Saviors, features multi-instrumentalist Mat Davidson, guitarist Adam Brisbin, pianist/organist Dylan Meek, and drummer Austin Vaughn, all prior live collaborators, as his backing band. The resulting set of 11 songs picks up where the debut left off, with a timeless feel and welcoming demeanor. The midtempo opener, Pareidolia, starts things off with strummed acoustic guitar, piano-boosted rhythm section, vintage keys, and Meeks comforting yet brittle, lilting vocal delivery offering poetic lyrics that combine memories and formations in the clouds. The livelier Second Sight, while it gets feet tapping, is just as gentle and features a bittersweet chorus that unfolds like a slow-moving yodel in multi-part harmony. Much of the album consists of similarly affectionate, soft-footed tracks, though the rustic rock of Ham on White ventures into feedback and distortion, and the rollicking, committed country of Cannonball! Pt. 2 -- a sequel to Buck Meeks Cannonball! -- takes advantage of Davidson (who performs solo as Twain) to double down on howling harmonies. These tracks are balanced by a few sparer intimate ones steeped in nostalgia and an uncertain hope. Throughout Two Saviors, Meeks uniquely kindly tenor conveys evocative phrases and settings that likewise stand apart from the crowd. ~ Marcy Donelson