Cast the Same Old Shadow

Personnel: Dylan LeBlanc (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Mus Gillum (vocals); Ben Tanner (piano, Hammond b-3 organ, Mellotron, vibraphone); Jon Davis (drums, percussion); Jeremy Gibson (drums).
Audio Mixer: Trina Shoemaker.
Recording information: House Of Fame, Muscle Shoals, AL; The Music Shed, New Orleans, LA; The NuttHouse, Sheffield, AL.
Photographer: Jeannette Lee.
On 2010's Paupers Field, then 20-year-old Shreveport, Louisiana native Dylan LeBlanc presented a confident, if slightly laconic, new voice that was based in the tradition of maverick singer/songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young, and Gram Parsons. Lush, less timid, and even more melancholy than his debut, 2012's appropriately titled Cast the Same Old Shadow feels like a proper second outing, building on the strengths of its predecessor while maintaining its overall gloomy, gothic Americana vibe. LeBlanc's pained, doomed romanticism, best exemplified by weepy cuts like "Part One: The End," "Where Are You Now," and "Lonesome Waltz," may be the "same old shadow" he's referring to in the title, and it casts an awfully wide net over the proceedings, resulting in an ultra-slow-burn listening experience that falls somewhere between the wretched rain-soaked beauty of Mickey Newbury and the hymn-like sonic expansiveness of Richard Hawley. At its best, like on the aforementioned "Where Are You Now" and the sprawling, instantly engaging "Brother," LeBlanc looks to high and lonesome country for inspiration, eking out his own subgenre while respectfully adhering to the original's mournful simplicity. ~ James Christopher Monger