Long Cool World

by North Americans

Overview

Under the North Americans banner, Patrick McDermott has explored a range of sonic textures, from the growling drones and abstract channel-flipping of 2014's No_No to the meandering American primitive guitar figures on 2018's Going Steady. After signing with Third Man, the project morphed into a duo with the inclusion of Portland pedal steel player Barry Walker. Almost unrecognizable from McDermott's earlier work, their 2020 collaboration, Roped In, was laconic and ethereal, a languid conversation between two improvisers. The duo's follow-up (and McDermott's fifth overall as North Americans) follows a similar pattern and is, if anything, even sleepier than its predecessor. Ostensibly, Long Cool World is an album of acoustic guitar (nylon- and steel-stringed) and pedal steel instrumentals, largely improvised, and without a lot of definition. The songs move across the stereo field in humid, pink-clouded drifts, occasionally whipping up a small storm, but mostly ambling at their own easy pace. Underneath the surface of Walker's shimmering steel tones and McDermott's circular patterns, however, are finer details worth listening for. Tracks like "Think of Me as a Place" and "Crossed Up" are surprisingly dense affairs, underpinned by a mild chaos of effects and murmuring static. The manipulation is so subtle, it's hard to pick out what, apart from the guitars, is happening in each song. At its most tranquil, like on the lovely "The Last Rockabilly," Long Cool World is like a warm wind, gently pushing listeners down an unknown but inviting path. It's ambient music for slow walking and daydreaming with enough organic elements to keep it loosely tethered to reality. ~ Timothy Monger

Product Details

Release Date:	04/07/2023
Label:	Third Man Records
UPC:	0810074422307
Rank:	59747

Tracks

1. The Living End
2. Classic Water
3. The Last Rockabilly
4. The River Is Wide
5. Think of Me as a Place
6. The Nighthawks Are Out
7. Crossed Up
8. Western Town, With Road to Mountain
9. Bad Box

Album Credits

Performance Credits

North Americans   Primary Artist
Patrick McDermott   Organ,Guitar (Acoustic)
Barry Walker   Organ
Mike Lockwood   Percussion

Technical Credits

Bill Skibbe   Mastering
Dylan Magierek   Engineer
Patrick McDermott   Composer,Producer
Joel Ford   Mixing,Producer
Barry Walker   Composer,Producer
Brian Blomerth   Artwork