ROKY ERICKSON WITH OKKERVIL RIVER – TRUE LOVE CASTS OUT ALL EVIL

Goodbye Sweet Dreams is the signature moment on True Love Casts Out All Evil, it is a classic Roky Erickson song: starting with a plucked acoustic guitar riff, then adding rumbling drums, some trademark Erickson vocals, the title a repeated mantra, and then kick in the electric guitars and bass into one big epic wall of sound … bewdiful! Roky Erickson penned his classic You’re Gonna Miss Me at the tender age of 15, fronted the legendary 13th Floor Elevators in the 60s, had a patchy solo career in the 70s and 80s and battled mental and physical illness for much of the last two decades. That he was capable of writing throughout that (these songs are handpicked from material written over these years) and now performing is a feat of Lazarus-like proportions. To team him with Will Sheff and Okkervil River was an inspired choice. Erickson’s voice has lost some of its youthful roar, but it has been replaced with a depth and timbre born of a life lived, and the quieter country-rock moments like Be and Bring Me Home and blues-gospel of Ain’t Blues Too Sad are all the better for it. This is a remarkable album in so many ways.

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