Willi Carlisle Peculiar, Missouri (CD)

(Free Dirt Records) 12 tracks, digisleeve

Willi Carlisle doesn't like to be called a poet, he sees himself as a folk singer for the masses. Like his great role model Utah Phillips, Carlisle is not about highfalutin oratory, but about looking out for each other and connecting through a common humanity. On his highly anticipated sophomore album, "Peculiar, Missouri," Carlisle demonstrates in twelve epic-seeming tracks that love truly can overcome all. Born and raised on the plains of America's Midwest, the singer is part of the punk and folk connection ("punk to folk music pipeline") that young men there actually try to avoid. Then, after falling in love with the rich ballads and melodies of his new home in the Ozarks, he began to devote himself to the entire spectrum of American musical history.

It is this insatiable stylistic diversity that is evident on the album "Peculiar, Missouri." The songs range from wicked honky-tonk bangers like "Vanlife" to the heartbreaking queer waltz "Life on the Fence." From "Este Mundo," a cowboy ballad about water rights to the title track's existential "Talkin' Blues" about a surreal panic attack in the aisles of a Walmart department store.

Although Willi Carlisle's poetic words recall the mystical American tales of Whitman, Sandburg and Cummings, this is ultimately satirical populist folk music. In that very music he realized that the only thing that keeps us from greatness is ourselves. With "Peculiar, Missouri" he brings us one step closer to overcoming our own mental trenches.