Artist:     Chad Elliott & The Redemptions

Album:     Rest Heavy - The Sun Studio Sessions

Label:     Self-released

Release Date:     8.10.2018

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Iowa suggests such names as Greg Brown, Bo Ramsey, and Pieta Brown among others but now singer-songwriter, artist and author, Chad Elliott can join their esteemed company with Rest Heavy. Even if you didn’t know that these tracks were recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis, you’d still sense a bit of that Elvis Presley style in Elliot’s mix of roots-rock, soul, blues and modern gospel. All but “St. James Infirmary” are originals.

The opening title track has the feel of an old soul record and Elliott’s vocal here evokes Elvis not in any imitative way, just in its similarity. The following “Shy of Shameless” is emblematic of that blues-infused, harmonica driven sound of Sun Studio in its heyday. Then, the style changes again with the country soul of “Hills of Tennessee.” One associates Sun Studios and Carl Perkins with Cadillacs, perhaps the inspiration for Elliott’s Tom Waits-like “Cadillac Problems, Buick Times.” Coincidentally, the Daddy duo of Will Kimbrough and Tommy Womack put Kimbrough’s song “Cadillac Problems” on their most recent album but it’s an entirely different song,

Elliott’s band, The Redemptions, features Elliott on acoustic guitar and harmonica, Tommy Lewis on electric guitar and harmonica, Travis McFarlane on keys. Jim Van Dorn on drums, Joseph Cafaro on upright bass, and Kevin Boehnke on trumpet and acoustic guitar. Van Dorn, Boehnke, and guest Roger Feldhans join in the chorus for an extended version of the standard “St. James Infirmary.”

As the animated album unfolds, it becomes apparent that almost each song takes on a different style. His tale of unrequited love in the ballad “Alberta” has some of qualities of the same title that Dylan sang about on Self Portrait. “Shining Stars” has an intimate country feel. Yet, the prevailing mood for Elliott is blues as heard on “Slow Again” and “Dirty River/Catfish Blues.” Two songs nod toward beat poets, musicians and ramblers. There’s the travel log “Shy of Shameless” and the slide-driven “Embarcadero Street.” The engaging, epic “Water Under the Bridge” is a slow burning country soul ballad that recounts life’s mistakes, as if to say, “been there, done that, and we’re moving on.” It’s the perfect lead-in to the upbeat funeral march of “St. James Infirmary.”

This album just oozes soul, truth, and seems rather timeless as it could have been recorded almost any time in the last fifty-sixty years. As Greg Brown puts it, “Low, loose and full of juice.”

Elliott mixes his live performances with storytelling, much like Radney Foster and performs over 200 shows each year. He’s acquired the moniker “Iowa’s Renaissance Man,” having written over 1000 songs in his career while also sharpening his skills as a painter, sculptor, and children’s book author/illustrator (Wilderman’s Treetop Tales}. His recent poetry book Rumble & Flash is also available on his website.

—Jim Hynes