Brightblack - Ala.Cali.Tucky (2003)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Brightblack Morning Light - Motion to Rejoin (2008)

Languid, smoked-out country rock that's as fitting for late nights as it is for Sunday morning comedowns. Country slowcore, if you will. If you're familiar with the two records they put out after adding "Morning Light" to the end of their name: it's kinda like that, except with more acoustic slide guitar, pedal steel, and two Oldham brothers (yes, one of them's Will) in tow.

Track listing:

1. New Mexico

2. True Bright Blossom

3. Own Time

4. Better Days

5. Old Letters

6. Wildshiney Stars

7. Red

8. Ocean Blue

The silver rain down

If you like this, listen to:

Mojave 3 - Ask Me Tomorrow (1995)

MV & EE - Liberty Rose (2010)

Purple Ivy Shadows - No More the Trees Than the Stars (1997)

Laid-back, country-and-psych-tinged indie rock from Providence, RI (thanks for the correction.) No Less the Trees Than the Stars has soundtracked a few late-night friend-bubble porch-hangs here at Opium Hum HQ, and it always hits just right.

Track listing:

1. Pawtucket

2. Feeble

3. Rebuilding the Ancestral Statue

4. Until I Saw the Fish

5. Blue Mtn.

6. Roadwise Blood

7. Sustance

8. She Wouldn't Have It

9. Stairs

10. Dancefloor's Shiny Under Junky

11. No Health

12. A Space Is Needed

God is an American

You might also enjoy:

Meat Puppets - Forbidden Places (1991)

Mojave 3 - Ask Me Tomorrow (1995)

Mikko Joensuu - Amen 1 (2016)

Gorgeous heartache from Finnish songwriter Mikko Joensuu. On Amen 1, Joensuu zooms in on the often-subtle ethereality of classic country music and, with patient songwriting and spacious, string-and-reverb-heavy production, elevates it to impossibly bright, positively sublime new territory. It's a bit surreal to hear a Finn take on such an American style of music, but as far as I'm concerned, he's doing it as well as anyone's done it in years.

Track listing:
1. Enjoy It While It Lasts
2. Sometimes You Have to Go Far
3. Warning Sign
4. Closer My God
5. I'd Give You All
6. Thief and a Liar
7. Take Me Home Oh Lord
8. Valley of Gold

Shiver down my spine as I think of that place
When a wretch like me felt amazing grace

You might also like:

Mickey Newbury -
'Frisco Mabel Joy (1971)

Azure Ray -
November (2002)

Lullaby for the Working Class - I Never Even Asked for Light (1997)

Here's some nice, melancholic indie folk that reminds me of simpler times. Lullaby for the Working Class have aged much better than some of their more successful Saddle Creek compatriots (lookin' at you, Rilo Kiley.) This is partially due to their approachable, dense but organic sound, which, on I Never Even Asked for Light, is made by 12 musicians and over 20 instruments -- acoustic guitars, banjo, mandolin, violin, that kind of thing -- and partially due to their ability to look beyond their own little worlds. Members of Cursive and Bright Eyes.

Track listing:
1. Untitled
2. Show Me How the Robots Dance
3. Irish Wake
4. Jester's Siren
5. Hypnotist (Song for Daniel H.)
6. In Honor My Stumbling
7. This Is as Close as We Get
8. The Sunset and the Electric Bill
9. Bread Crumbs
10. Descent
11. The Man vs. the Tide (Part 1)
12. The Man vs. the Tide (Part 2)
13. The Man vs. the Tide (Part 3)

Colliding in a gas
We're two atoms of a kind
Rising from the fuel tank
And dancing on the windshield

Richard Buckner - Since (1998)

Next to Nick Drake, Richard Buckner is the best artist that I've discovered via a Volkswagen commercial. Since is the kind of beautiful, raw, scatterbrained album that is destined to alienate many, and make lifelong fans of a few.

Track listing:
1. Believer
2. Faithful Shooter
3. Ariel Ramirez
4. Jewelbomb
5. The Ocean Cliff Clearing
6. Goner w/ Souvenir
7. Slept
8. Pico
9. Coursed
10. Lucky Buzz
11. 10-Day Room
12. Brief & Boundless
13. Raze
14. Hand @ the Hem
15. Boys, the Night Will Bury You
16. Once

I kept your poem here
With all my other gear
But in the end
I missed what it meant