Stateside

On first listen to former Knoxville singer-songwriter-guitarist John Paul Keith's new project Stateside, it struck this reviewer that this was an organically Knoxville recording, buffed by the spit and polish of Nashville, where Keith is currently based. And that's mostly a pretty damned good thing.

A bit of history: the enigmatic and apocalyptically talented Keith was a co-founder of the late, lamented V-roys (along with the enigmatic and apocalyptically talented Scott Miller, of course), but left the group shortly before its signing to Steve Earle's E-Squared label. Upon moving to Nashville, his inaugural music-city project, The Nevers, managed to ink a deal with Sire Records within the space of one year (1998) before corporate shake-ups left the band high and dry.

Having narrowly missed earning a music industry brass ring no less than twice, Keith is at it again with the four-piece Stateside (which also includes former K-towner Billy Mercer on bass.) And his roots are still showing, in such a way that should make those of us still living in points TN-east proud. Twice as Gone is shot through with the elements that have seemingly always been indigenous to Knoxville's best bands—an unerring sense of pop sweetness, a Replacements-y stomp and swagger, a keen feel for verbiage—knowing when to cross the line separating sweet earnestness from bitterness and wry irony. Imagine a compilation that included contributions from Miller and Superdrag's John Davis and maybe even a Todd Steed toss-off or two, produced with a truly Nashvillian flair for sound and orchestration and arrangement, and you've got some idea of where Keith's band is coming from.

Songs like "After Dark" and "You Were Made for Me" and "I'm Not the One" (a few of the 12-song platter's choice tracks) bray and yearn and rock with all of the scruffy spirit of a Fort Sanders house party, yet come off with all sheen and big-studio crackle you'd expect from a major label effort (the album was recorded at Nashville's Disgraceland, the progeny of former local boy David Jenkins.)

Keith's songwriting chops are perhaps less diverse than those of some of his best-known Knoxville peers; there are times through the course of the album where you may be a little too keen to the fact that you've heard these sounds before. But Twice as Gone is a treat nonetheless, and though John Paul Keith may still be living two or three hours to the West, it sounds very much like he's come home again.