Artist:     Saugeye  

Album:     Saugeye  

Label:     Horton Records

Release Date:     1.29.21

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Go ahead and call Saugeye “old fashioned.” Rather than take offense, the Tulsa-based cooperative, led by soulful singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and hobbyist fisherman Jared Tyler, would almost certainly see it as a compliment, with their warm, folksy self-titled debut LP a bountiful harvest of jubilant, yet occasionally wistful, Americana.

Meshing with a spry, relaxed ease throughout, Tyler and fellow collaborators Seth Lee Jones, Jake Lynn, and The Tractors’ Casey Van Beek jam without a care in the world on the good-natured, upbeat, Malcom Holcombe-penned “One Leg at a Time,” the sunny cup of low-key joy “Keystone Lillie”—a loving homage to Tyler’s dog—and the jaunty, country soul fishing trip “Dirt on Your Hands.” They inject tightly wound, bounding energy and evangelical fever into Brandon Jenkins’ gospel hoedown “Gideon’s Bible” and wheel passionately through Holcombe’s “To the Homeland” and the more melodic and romantic “Gwendolyn,” with Saugeye eagerly embracing the eclectic musical history of their underdog of a hometown.

Arriving at time when Tulsa seems on the verge of a roots-music revival, Saugeye effortlessly throws together electric guitar glow, simmering beds of organ, finely plucked acoustic guitar and steady beats in a downhome blend of soft rock, tangled folk, Bonnie Raitt’s bluesy languor and gloriously faded, yet colorful, country weavings. Sashaying over Dixie Michell’s “Waltzing Around with My Shadow,” before the heartfelt storytelling and graceful balladry of “She Believes” tears up, the foursome also ambles along in “Death of Me,” as Tyler’s velvety vocals—a cross between Bill Withers and Randy Travis—ring out clear and bright, rising and falling with gentle, unassuming modulation. What a catch.

—Peter Lindblad