Souled American
were often lumped in with the alt-country scene of the late '80s and early '90s, though that was largely a matter of there not being a better description for what they were doing. The bands that rose in the wake of
Uncle Tupelo
grafted country, folk, and roots influences to the passion and fire of punk rock. On the other hand,
--
Chris Grigoroff
on guitar and vocals,
Scott Tuma
on guitar,
Joe Adducci
on bass, and
Jamey Barnard
on drums -- were deliberately shambolic, adding wobbly rhythms (sometimes fractured variations on reggae and Cajun beats) to melodies whose twangy core barely kept them from veering off the rails. Their approach became even harder to pigeonhole after
Barnard
quit the group and they opted not to replace him; their songs became increasingly spare and atmospheric while taking on an art-damaged veneer, suggesting a rootsy, lo-fi variation on
Big Star
's
Third
. Given their offbeat style,
were the sort of band destined to have a cult following rather than breaking through to the mass audience, but their problems finding a record company that would release their material without going out of business made it difficult for them to attract any sort of consistent fan base, and the fact they managed to release six albums between 1988 and 1996 seems more a matter of tenacity than meeting any sort of demand. (When
Jeff Tweedy
praised the song "Before Tonight" from 1996's
Notes Campfire
in his book World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music, he acknowledged that of all the songs in the book, it was the one hardest for listeners to find.) While a reissue program putting
's catalog back in print would be more than welcome,
Omnivore Recordings
has made a powerful sampling of their music available again with the 2025 compilation
Rise Above It: A Souled American Anthology
. The compilation features 20 songs, delivering highlights from each of their studio albums, and it honors their creative trajectory, as the engagingly chaotic attack of
Fe
(1988) and
Flubber
(1989) gives way to the more contemplative, late-night feel of
Around the Horn
(1990), then veering into the detourned folk and C&W covers from
Sonny
(1992), and finally embracing the spectral chill of
Frozen
(1994) and
(1996).
were a band that never went out of their way to make things easy for themselves or their audience, yet in spite of that, they created a body of work that's richly fascinating and has lost none of its singular personality in the nearly three decades since they last released an album. They deserve to be heard, and
is the excellent introductory set they've long needed. ~ Mark Deming