Based in Hoboken, NJ by way of Midland, MI, and with time spent in Chicago, New Orleans, and Albuquerque along the way, Tim Foljahn has amassed considerable credits as a guitarist, including Cat Power, Thurston Moore, and Half Japanese. But he’s also a singer-songwriter, with his skills in this regard fortifying the discography of the band Two Dollar Guitar (with Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley on drums) and releases under his own name, of which I Dreamed a Dream is his latest. It offers writing as confident as the instrumentation is rich, and with diversity the ace in the hole. The album is out now on 180 gram black vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Cart/Horse Records.
Going way back to the Kalamazoo hardcore scene, Tim Foljahn was in Strange Fruit (aka Strange Fruit Abiku) with Steve Shelley, though like much of the best stuff associated with the HC era, their 7-inch from 1983 doesn’t play by the loud fast rules. Purchasable and perusable digitally with bonus cuts via the Bandcamp page of Shelley’s Vampire Blues label, it’s better described as an inspired mashup of dubbed-out post-punk, no wave abrasion, and art damage in general. There was a full LP, Sin Eaters Picnic, released the following year, but sadly, I’ve yet to hear its contents. Maybe one day.
Foljahn first entered my consciousness around a decade later through Two Dollar Guitar, and roughly simultaneously (I can’t remember which I heard first), as part of Mosquito, an intensely creative trio, again with Shelley and rounded out by Jad Fair, the estimable leader of Half Japanese, the u-ground institution Foljahn also joined during this very fertile indie rock period.
But to drive home Foljahn’s association with Shelley even further, along with helping to back up Chan Marshall on Cat Power’s first few terrific records, they comprised yet another trio, this time with Thurston Moore, releasing one 7-inch (plus a couple comp tracks) as Male Slut in 1995 before recording Moore’s solo LP Psychic Hearts, which was released the same year.
The above obviously underscores Foljahn’s playing ability and insinuates that he gets along well with other human beings. While these elements are part of I Dreamed a Dream, which benefits from a solid band with Foljahn’s vocals and guitar often right up front, it’s the man’s songs that’re both immediately striking and lingeringly impressive as they extend from the singer-songwriter tradition (hey, Foljahn also backed up Townes Van Zandt) and occasionally divert from it.
Also stunning are the strings as arranged by Jeremy Wilms (who also contributes electric bass to the record) and played by Megan Gould on violin and viola and Danton Boller on double bass and cello. Indeed, strings are the first sound heard on the record, delivered pizzicato style as they accompany Foljahn, whose singing combines early ’60s teen heartthrob crooner with ’80s British pop auteur moves.
Eventually, those strings dive into baroque mode as Brian Kantor’s drums quickly bring the element of surprise. But the track’s strongest facets are the vocal harmonies of Foljahn and Christina Rosenvinge and how, near song’s end, the strings begin to recall, just a bit mind you, those heard on Big Star’s dysfunctional masterpiece Third.
And this resemblance to Big Star continues, though not in the string laden 36 seconds of the very next track “I Dreamed,” which instead strikes me as a little like something Jon Brion might’ve cooked up for one of Paul Thomas Anderson early films. No, it’s a slight echo of Big Star’s “Big Black Car” that I hear in the next cut, “Lowdown Day,” which wastes no time in asserting its own countryish character.
“Ghost Ripper” instead sounds similar to an early ’80 singer-songwriter gone college rock rootsy, like he’s hooked up with Dave Alvin and Los Lobos and landed Don Dixon or maybe even T-Bone Burnett as producer. The reality is that I Dreamed a Dream was produced, engineered and mixed by Tom Beaujour, who also worked on Foljahn’s prior two albums and who does a handy job of unifying some disparate angles here, such as the stripped-down early Stereolab motorik pulse of “Remember Me.”
By the song’s end, we’re inching into the neighborhood of Anton Newcombe, and then the following selection “Wake Up” detours into the blues, blending North Mississippi incessantness with some equally unceasing John Lee Hooker-esque foot tap. It’s risky territory, particularly as Foljahn cusses up a blue streak, but it’s pulled off without a stumble.
From there, I Dreamed a Dream tills pop-rock soil much nearer to Foljahn’s Hoboken digs. There’s the sprightly guitar and vocal harmony of “I Can’t Decide” (but with an unexpected Bob Fripp in a New Jersey basement ending). There’s “Day is Done,” another strings-rich number that reminds me more of John Cale’s Paris 1919 than it does the label’s mention of Leonard Cohen. And there’s the neo-noirish finale “In My Dreams”; maybe it’s just the title, but I couldn’t shake thinking of a less lurid pre-Twin Peaks David Lynch.
Many of the comparisons above date me as an aged fucker. But Tim Foljahn’s even older. With I Dreamed a Dream, he combines the best aspects of maturity with youthful spark and collaborative spirit. It’s a fine listen.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
