The Scenic Route, by Paul Bast
Milwaukee band Arroyo’s country rock predated the genre we’ve come know as Americana and back in 1981 (when their lone album was released) the group might have been out of step with post-punk and new wave sounds.
Now, a quarter of a century down the line Arroyo multi-instrumentalist Paul Bast has released The Scenic Route, a solo album backed by a group dubbed The Kindness of Strangers. The album’s title reflects the collection of songs which survey life’s journey.
Bast, who also played with bands Rio, The Post Turtles and Plumb Loco—the latter of whom has played the Wisconsin State Fair for 40 years, it would seem knows a bit about the scenic routes.
Backed by fellow Arroyo guitarist Jason Klagstad and Milwaukee notables Bob Schneider and Bob Jennings, among others, the collection of songs moves among roots and routes.
Blasting off with the rockabilly romp “Attached to You,” Bast and company set the stage. “Lost Soul” uses river as lyrical metaphor and is supported by a choir of voices that leans into Gospel, sliced by Bast’s dobro lines—it adds up to a subtly powerful churning song.
The title cut suggests a hard-won wisdom gained from life’s lessons; patience is rewarded. “Souvenir Heartache” brings a Tex-Mex energy that recalls The Mavericks and “The Fool I Used to Be” is all Saturday night vintage country ala Ray Price—complete with fiddle and pedal steel break.
The album’s centerpiece, “The Road and Where I’m Bound” features ascendant vocals by Rae Cassidy; that tune’s gravity is neatly shifted by Bast’s lyric detail “the giggle of a child who just blew out all three candles on her birthday cake” on the closing track “While I Still Have the Time.”
The Scenic Route is another chapter in an artist’s lifelong discography. Bast’s previous album, Can What You Can’t was released in 2006. In another noteworthy return, photographer Deone Jahnke took the cover image.
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