The title track to The River Otters’ new album Adshusheer (released January 12, 2024) is a song in three movements and rewards your attention. It begins with a background drone and elegant acoustic guitar figures that contain elements of Middle Easter chord structures but with a touch of pastoral folk twang. The effect is one of taking the listener out of the usual cultural referents and delivered to a journey at near the two and a half minute mark as the song goes into direct motion but maintaining most of the same tonal and textural components. The guitar bends shape the main melody as drums mark the paces until near the four minute point in the song when the sounds shift into a more psychedelic Americana flavor that more than slightly dips into country and then shifting back to a dynamic that suggests some roots in blues. It’s clearly been touched by the influence of John Fahey whose own purely instrumental work suggested grand narratives of the American landscape but a quick read through song titles from the album this song is a chapter in a work about a trek to unexpectedly fantastical places in search of the lost village that is the song’s and thus album’s title, an indigenous settlement that was abandoned in the reckless process of European colonization. By invoking that kind of created myth the song and the album is reminiscent of the fantastical works of John Crowley and his novels Aegypt and Little, Big wherein places of secret yet powerful significance beyond mundane reality exist and can be reached but not by every seeker. The River Otters seem to be drawn to that kind of deep magical realism in the crafting of this music and it will bring you along for that journey if you’re willing to give it a listen. Experience “Adshusheer” for yourself, both the single and the album, on Spotify and learn more about the band and the story behind the music at the link below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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