Kane, Welch & Kaplin: A Trio On Top Of Its Game

Kane Welch Kaplin
Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch & Fats Kaplin
(Compass)

“Lost John Dean,” the 2006 release from Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch and Fats Kaplin, hit No. 1 on the Americana Radio Chart and earned them an Americana Music Association nomination for duo/group of the year. The group’s latest release, “Kane Welch Kaplin,” leaves the group poised to duplicate that success this year.

It’s easy to hear why the trio has been so successful. Separately they are accomplished songwriters and musicians, but they keep the focus on the collective effort. This isn’t some kind of Americana supergroup, it’s a band. The songs, as did those on “Lost John Dean,” sound like they were recorded with the three of them playing in the same room. The performances are so intimate that you can hear the hum and the pulse of the vibrato from Kaplin’s guitar amplifier on the opening track, “Ain’t Gonna Do It.”

That’s but one example of the warmth that envelops “Kane Welch Kaplin.” With no piano or bass, the trio performs throughout with the languid ease of a back-porch jam, and the shimmering, bluesy undercurrent of the album suggests a lazy summer day. It’s anything but a home recording, though. Kaplin furnishes a sophisticated sound and polishes edges with his multi-instrumental contributions. Pleasantly, the colors he adds are sometimes unconventional, such as the electric sitar on Welch’s “I Wish I Had That Mandolin.”

Another vital element of their playing-on-the-porch vibe is the beat that drives many of the songs. It’s subtle, like someone tapping their foot. And it’s provided by Kane’s son, Lucas, who as the unofficial fourth band member serves as the pulse of “Kane Welch Kaplin” with his playing on a stripped-down drum kit.

The sound of “Kane Welch Kaplin” sets it apart from many singer-songwriter records, but the material is just as strong. Kane and Welch are top-notch songwriters, and their alternating compositions and rich voices keep the album from ever settling into a feeling of sameness.

The characters in their songs aren’t prone to sameness either. Some are transient, moving through America’s dark underbelly. Some are at the end of their figurative rope. Others lost their grip long ago. “Kane Welch Kaplin” documents these stories cohesively, though they could have been collected from a variety of sources: a hobo’s campfire, a jail cell, a tour diary or in a last will and testament scrawled in a Gideon Bible at a cheap motel. The trio excels at bringing these story-songs to life.

Kane’s “Ain’t Gonna Do It,” introduces us to a man who resolutely states, “I ain’t gonna do it / I ain’t gonna fall / I ain’t gonna do it / That’s all.” He sounds like he’s trying to convince himself, leaving the listener to wonder if he can actually make it.

The protagonist of Welch’s “I Wish I Had That Mandolin” pawns the instrument his brother gave him so he can have money in his pocket, a suit of clothes and enough plane fare to go see his sweetheart. The thudding beat carries song and singer along, making it easy to picture him walking to her house. When he gets there, and through the window sees his journey is at an adulterous end, he realizes the folly in giving up his one source of strength. “If I had it back again, well I bet that sucker could save me.”

“Red Light Blinking” encapsulates the loneliness of a weary traveler, perhaps a musician, drifting from dirty motel to motel. The spare accompaniment, only banjo and softly weeping steel, underscores his solitary existence: “Open the bottle / Three fingers neat / Sometimes the whiskey / helps me sleep.”

“Last Lost Highway” is a lament for a friend who committed suicide. Welch captures the raw emotion of the situation when he sings, “My children cried when they heard the news / I held them each, and I cried too.”

“Dark Boogie #7” is one of the most compelling songs on a disc full of them. It probes the thoughts of a mentally ill murderer, “one of the ones who know not what they do,” painting in just over three throbbing minutes a portrait of simple man who is seemingly incapable of knowing exactly why he ended up in a cage.

The disc moves from the darkness to the light in its final minutes. Gentle fingerpicking and steel guitar ring in the public-domain gospel of “What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?,” and Welch conveys emotion without relying on vocal theatrics. “What are they doing in heaven today? / Where sin and sorrow are all done away / Peace abounds like the river they say / What are they doing there now?”

“What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?” not only comes across as needed prayer for the lost souls in “Kane Welch Kaplin’s” saddest songs, it is a note-perfect closer to the album. It’s little surprise; this trio has a knack for getting it just right.