Some musicians never release a single psychedelic banjo tune. It took singer-songwriter Dickie Lee Erwin 45 years to do it, and then he put four of them on one album. Erwin, 70, is one of those musician lifers who’s never found fame – but still wakes up every day and writes a song or books a gig. He has always sounded old-fashioned (fiddles and Dobros, melodies from the mountains, twangy electric guitars, choogling country rhythms) and looked that way too, like a friendly rural sheriff playing the guitar. Snake Doctor, his 11th album, veers off to give his rootsy tracks a new pop shimmer and layered vibe courtesy of co-producer Rob Halverson, a fan of random and found sounds. Find plenty of reverb-soaked guitars, quirky arrangements, and solid songs like “Highway 62,” which resembles an outtake from Neil Young’s Harvest Moon. The biggest surprises are the banjo grooves like “Space Miner Moonshiner” and “Psychedelic Summer,” which is based around a track played by James Brown’s old drummer Clyde Stubblefield and recorded by Butch Vig when those two – as well as Halverson – lived in Madison, Wisconsin. From happy collaborations like these comes great art, and cool tunes.
Dickie Lee Erwin
Snake Doctor
This article appears in February 2 • 2024.