Songs:Ohia

this expanded 10-year anniversary edition of the hallmark of jason molina’s career features one never-before-released track plus many rarities.

landing somewhere on the radar sonically between bob dylan’s ‘desire’ & bob seger’s ‘beautiful loser’, though thematically in line with lynyrd skynyrd’s ‘simple man’, ‘the magnolia electric co’ lies at the crossroads of working class rock, white soul, swamp rock & outlaw country. while the entire album boasts a doo wop-like line-up with 5 vocalists on the floor, 6 of the 8 songs have molina in the tall stool with the ever-enchanting jennie benford as primary back-up vocalist. ‘whip poor will’ is a sweet & spare version that ended up being played far differently on magnolia electric co.’s final album ‘josephine’ (2009). also included is the studio version of ‘the big game is every night’. this edition also gathers molina’s gutting demos for the record. they are so close & intimate, it’s hard to look them right in the eye.