Eyes Full by Zoh Amba

For fans of the Big Thief extended universe, experimental old time music, and a counter narrative to all the Americana slop generated by mainstream culture, Zoh Amba’s new record Eyes Full takes this artist’s experience in the jazz avant garde to a unique voicing of the music of their native East Tennessee. The characters in Amba’s stories speak in desperate, warbly tones over a diverse array of conventionally American musical forms both contemporary and traditional, effortlessly weaving a path between noisy distortion, vibrant saxophones, and strumming guitars. Their words take us to dangerous job sites and deferred medical care, the sort of existence deeply endemic to the American public but rarely given a champion in experimental art. While mainstream consciousness chases a Disney World version of American identity, Zoh Amba’s more realistic rendition of vernacular culture reveals the United States as a complicated place full of complicated people, giving the listener a chance to feel American nostalgia in all its potential for both good and evil.