Artist:     Ted Drozdowski/Coyote Motel

Album:     Coyote Motel

Label:     Self-Released

Release Date:     1.25.19

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Scissormen’s Ted Drozdowski, one of the most imaginative guitarists currently exploring the outer reaches of cosmic roots music, is the head proprietor of the surreal Coyote Motel. Home to labyrinths of slow-burning blues such as “My Friend” and haunted wanderings through moonlit desert landscapes like “Still Among the Living,” as well as other cool, quirky musical adventures, Coyote Motel is both the name of Drozdowski’s latest project and the title of its new album.

Anthony DeCurtis seems to have enjoyed his stay. The revered music critic wrote glowing liner notes for the release, playing up Drozdowski’s inventive guitar chops, his deep respect for the blues and an off-kilter artistic vision that’s delightfully mad, but also completely organic. Joined by friend and bassist Sean Zywick, who co-produced the record, and drummer Kyra Curenton, Drozdowski conjures a variety of psychedelic riffs and leads—some streaking across the sky like comets, others blurring the senses—that color the rapturously heavy, apocalyptic noir of “Los Alamos,” a cleverly satirical imagining of the end of days, and the trippy “Trouble,” its rumbling percussive undercurrent on loan from the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.”

Touchy subjects such as America’s opioid crisis are treated with sensitivity and humor, as Drozdowski’s absurdist lyrical bent clashes with a need to address real-life issues. It’s the seductive pull of Coyote Hotel’s sound that settles the score. Fuzzy and deep fried, “Down in Chulahoma” is a satisfying stomp inspired by time spent in northern Mississippi, drawing you there to soak in the sounds of R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill and the hill country. Drozdowski has put that education to good use, although Coyote Hotel closes with a mind-bending, mysterious reworking of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Tin Pan Alley” that defies any notion of tradition with its hallucinatory effects. It’s a good reason to delay checkout.

—Peter Lindblad