Until They Burn Me Mud Music

Storytelling soul-folk rockers Until They Burn Me welcome listeners into an extensive yet brilliantly versatile collection of original tracks – the sort that impress, engage, and entertain, all while introducing an act with a softly unmistakable backbone to their creative style.

Cody Carlyle and Travis Jordan make up the band, a duo united in their shared search for the songs their souls want to hear. The album blends aspects of a number of different genres for this reason, an eclecticism rooted in the simple freedom of artistic expression – the kind of approach that always feels decidedly genuine.

Seventeen tracks comprise Mud Music, beginning with the aptly-muggy Western guitar tones and muffled storm sounds of Wandering Of A Prairie Ghost, and proceeding through the more acoustic Folk groove of Ballad of a Prairie Ghost. The album sets the mood, while the songs increasingly intrigue and grip.

Uniquely deep vocals quietly guide us through this Johnny Cash-like blues and americana story and song, before Until They Burn Me strike up a whole new style, for the acoustic-rock anthem Talking To The Dead. The Artist takes that tempo and grit even further, with high energy, lashings of distortion, and lyrical and vocal ferocity. Still the voice remains – a thread of identity, alongside these nostalgic and imaginative, poetic tales.

Cody and Travis have been playing music together for over thirty years, formerly as part of the band The Dry Season. This new venture, however, only came about in 2021, and Mud Music is essentially their celebration of those three years of creative togetherness.

Contrast is a key part of this album’s appeal. We move from the impassioned outcry of The Artist into the again acoustic folk and country softness of 12 Square Nails; a moment of vulnerability, juxtaposing the perspective and role-play of elsewhere. Ain’t No Good afterwards presents a brilliant acoustic guitar song; one that would feel right at home in the Sons of Anarchy Soundtrack. The voice finds its fluidity and warmth here.

The mood of this music and the organic style makes it an easy pleasure to let fill the room in any number of settings. But interwoven amidst that stylistic appeal, are a series of conceptual and thoughtful lyrical journeys – the likes of which resound throughout a massively impactful Building A God. The musicianship also seems to really find its higher level around this point, not least of all through the fresh voice and folk rock intensity of an addictive Fire Mountain Stomp.

Some final highlights from the album’s latter half include the atmospherically haunting Alms For Saint Frances, the cinematic and string-led instrumental Downwood Waits, and the compelling delicacy and concept of an intimate, acoustic Worms. Sour Land also feels like a brilliant movie opener or final shot – the tired but confident walk through the chaos and contemplation that has come to pass.

In reality though, there’s so much to love about the authenticity and purity of Mud Music. Until They Burn Me care not for industry expectations or standards, and yet still demonstrate a clear understanding of what works both evocatively and structurally. The album is effectively arranged, and even wraps up with a natural-world meditative folk rasp and vintage tone, to recapture the honesty and enjoyment that was the project in its entirety.

Download or stream Mud Music. Find Until They Burn Me on Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram.