Climbing the Hill

For those unfamiliar with Richard Buckner, this Friday's show at the Crocodile Cafe is the perfect opportunity to discover an under-acknowledged musical genius.

Buckner is a 32-year-old singer/songwriter with four albums under his belt: Bloomed (1994), Devotion + Doubt (1997), Since (1998), and The Hill (2000). His sound is usually labeled "Americana" -- alternative country music laced with heavy bits of folk, rock and bluegrass. But to label him as such is to tie him down. As demonstrated on his latest album, The Hill, Buckner proves his ability to explode barriers at his will while still keeping with this genre.

The Hill is a single 35-minute track that interweaves the text of selected poems from Edgar Lee Masters' collection, The Spoon River Anthology. Masters' Anthology, written in 1915, tells the post-mortem thoughts of residents of the fictional midwestern American town, Spoon River, and is drenched in themes of betrayal, death and love lost. It is a tall order to take an existing text such as Masters', apply it to one's own songwriting and produce something of merit. But Buckner manages to illuminate Masters' subtle poetic structures through his own subtle patterns of singing and music.

Because it is a single track, skipping forward is impossible, which may seem frustrating at first, but having one track is a logical solution. Masters' original refers to other peoples' experiences described in other poems from his Anthology: One life inevitably affects others, and changes them. The Hill reflects the lacing up of separate lives into a single experience. The result is a humility and honesty unmatched by many contemporary musical acts. The Hill is both old and new; it sparkles with timeless truths, beautiful music, voice and poetry.

The Hill may be Buckner's best work yet, but his previous three records deserve equal attention. Never just collections of songs (except perhaps Bloomed), they are all albums in the best sense of the word. They each resonate with cohesive sets of themes and sounds. Songs effortlessly slip from one stream of consciousness to the next, a patchwork of timescapes.

His live shows resonate with the same intimacy his work necessitates for the listener. Often, he performs with just his acoustic guitar, accompanied by pedal steel or mandolin. Look forward to some innovative, Appalachian-infused stuff.