Artist:     Grant Peeples

Album:     Settling Scores Vol. II

Label:     Gatorbone Records

Release Date:     2.1.18

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Bob Dylan’s “Brownsville Girl” has a complicated history. Grant Peeples & the Peeples Republik add another chapter with a more down-to-earth version called “The New Brownsville Girl,” which brings his latest album, Settling Scores Vol. II, to a long, drawn-out conclusion. It’s a wonderful journey, though, a piece of grand storytelling lit by golden, accordion-sketched Americana. Who knows what Dylan would think of it.

As for Peeples, he gives an unvarnished critique of the original, delving deeply its past – from its origins as “New Danville Girls,” a collaboration between Dylan and playwright Sam Shepard, to its ties to Lou Reed and Woody Guthrie – and offering sharp commentary in liner notes that read like a master’s thesis. While tipping his hat to them all by saying, “Guys, I could not have done it without you,” Peeples also boldly offers a parting shot: “But this … The New Brownsville Girl … this is my song now.”

Wickedly funny, unflinchingly honest and highly literate, Peeples doesn’t pull any punches on Settling Scores Vol. II, a solid, stripped-down collection of tough, gritty folk and roots music with a Southern gothic sensibility. Produced by Gurf Morlix, it’s a warm, clear record, but also one that brings artist and listener almost uncomfortably close to one another – see the sparse and rickety “Dear Judas” to feel what that’s like. Rife with biting humor and brutal socio-political commentary, it also smartly balances hard-boiled realism with romance.

A menacing, organ-fueled bonfire, “Pitchforks and Torches,” which graphically articulates the ugliness of the Charlottesville protests, is grim stuff. Hot and funky, if also a bit awkward, grooves drive the satirical “More for Us, Less for Them,” which takes dead aim at heartless immigration and economic policies that benefit the rich and punish the poor. At least his heart and head are in the right place.

More moving and human, “Liliana” has an alluring, burnished melody that, when polished up, reveals great songwriting craftsmanship, while Peeples’ revision of Steve Earle’s “Goodbye” succeeds on its weathered charm. God bless the Peeples Republik.

—Peter Lindblad