Summary.
Few roots-rock outfits managed to fuse the domestic tone and the epic tone
the way Seattle's Walkabouts did.
Chris Eckman's melancholy elegies, Carla Torgeson's solemn and mournful
harmonies, and a folk-rock sound that recalled a noisier Fairport Convention,
led to the vibrant Cataract (1989) and to the prophetic and desolate
Scavenger (1991). After the vast fresco of New West Motel (1993),
which possibly remains their masterpiece,
the tighter and more austere Setting The Woods On Fire (1994)
began a progression towards ever more eccentric arrangements:
Devil's Road (1996), with a symphony orchestra,
Nighttown (1997), driven by strings and keyboards,
Trail Of Stars (1999), which incorporates electronic instruments.
Full bio.
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
The Walkabouts repertoire represents one of the most precious treasures of American roots-rock of the 1980s. Chris Eckmans melancholic songs and the vocal harmonies between him and Carla Torgeson have the evocative power that arises from the fusion of a domestic tone and an epic tone.
Debuting in 1985 with the single Amy Grant and the EP 22 Disasters (Necessity), the group displayed a subdued, uncertain, ambiguous sound, in the vein of the Feelies, enriched by melodies and harmonies with an almost grandiose charm.
Catchy, cadenced songs such as Tools Of The Trade and Hope In Anchor led them to be associated with the folk-rock revival (R.E.M., 10,000 Maniacs), but in reality their jingle-jangle was limited to the leaders shy guitar work, and in any case their folk-rock was influenced by Buzzcocks punk-pop and garage rock, as shown in the album anthem Ask Me Another, with a driving guitar riff and a vibrant chorus. The duos eclecticism was also evident in the Eastern-flavored Trouble Time, with cello and Torgesons vocal harmonies (the whole recalls Family), and in the title track, which Torgesons organ turns into an atmospheric song in the style of Joy Division. The albums strength lay above all in its melodies.
The Walkabouts became something like the Fairport Convention of college-rock with their first album, See Beautiful Rattlesnake Gardens (PopLlama, 1988). The sound was actually equally influenced by British folk and American country & western, but the preferred format of Torgeson and company was indeed the ballad, both in the smooth country-rock version (Jumping Off) and in the solemn nineteenth-century one (John Reilly), although the eccentric spirit of Eckman and his ensemble emerges more clearly in Laughingstock (with a structure similar to Down In The Desert by Thin White Rope), or Glass Palace (inspired by Springsteens emphatic rock and roll), or even in instrumental pieces such as Ballad Of Moss Head, with its at least surreal progression.
The following album, Weight And Rivers, would remain unreleased, but it featured a more polished and mannered sound, and added at least one standout track to the repertoire: the airy ballad Linda Evans and the cascading psychedelic chords of Cyclone.
Cataract (SubPop, 1989), the album that brought them to a wider audience, presents the same lesson of domestic folk-rock, but with a more intrepid spirit. Some tracks are played with the barbaric drive of Camper Van Beethoven (Bones Of Contention), and others with the metaphysical tone of Thin White Rope (Whiskey XXX). The realist component of their art comes to the surface in Smokestack, a Randy Newman-like sketch with tuba, and especially in Hells Soup Kitchen, performed with the epic intensity of Warren Zevon. At once profound and creative, the Walkabouts ballad represents an important achievement of college-pop.
In the more mannered numbers it feels like listening to an English folk revival group (the medieval Whereabouts Unknown, the epic jig of Drille Terriers, the galloping instrumental The Wicked Skipper, the waltz-like Specimen Days), or the archaic boogie of Jethro Tull (End-In-Tow), or even the rural Led Zeppelin of When The Leevee Breaks (Home As Found). More than college-pop, it should indeed be called college-folk.
The EP Rag & Bone, with Anvil Song, paved the way for the even more linear Scavenger (SubPop, 1991) along a path that remains highly personal, even if it has lost some of the melodic richness and spontaneity of the early days. The arrangements, now also making use of Glenn Slaters keyboards, favor a more evocative reworking of past genres (Where The Deep Water Goes and River Blood also draw from Black folklore) and sharpen the singers fatalistic tone, placing their allegories in desolate landscapes. A prophetic tone drives the epic call of Dead Man Rise and the vibrant command of Stir The Ashes (in whose harmonies one can even hear echoes of Native American war drums and cavalry gallops). Eckman sings hoarsely on Nothing Is (very similar to Laughingstock), as well as the vast and sweet Last Train To Mercy (one of their peaks), which brings Arlo Guthrie and Donovan back from the shelves of introspective singer-songwriters. Their cryptic reflections on the fate of the individual display the sober poetics and gloomy composure of epitaphs on gravestones.
Continuing the progression that had taken them from the amateurish style of the first album to the more sophisticated approach of Scavenger, the Walkabouts arrived at the baroque style of the monumental New West Motel (Subpop, 1993), having added Bruce Wirth on violin and mandolin. Through modern reworkings of the folk spirit (Jack Candy) and country spirit (Your Hope Shines), the Walkabouts maintained their promise of becoming the Fairport Convention of the 1990s. But the record is teeming with innovations, happily blended together. On one hand, the group adopts harsher postures, even brushing against the style of John Mellencamp in Drag This River: a more sustained trot and a more violent electric edge underpin the fatalistic stories of Sweet Revenge and Glad Nations Death Song.
On the other hand, the attention to the scenography of the song creates the conditions for increasingly sophisticated atmospheres. In the epic gallop of Sundowner, one senses the influence of both country music and Morricones film soundtracks. In the long ballad Grand Theft Auto, tension is sustained by a hammering organ pulse and strong guitar distortion. The violins chirping, the tribal feel of the drums, and the organs moaning sustain the sibylline melody of Break It Down Gently. Once again, the sextet makes no mistakes in arrangement. Each scene of the fresco is vividly colored and framed from a suggestive angle.
The two singers complement each other in a striking way, she more solemn and proud, he frustrated and angry. The two voices chase each other through the existential labyrinths of this album, perhaps without ever truly meeting. A slight excess of emotional intensity (or perhaps of sentimentality) also makes it a collection of small hymns to ordinary people, their tragedies, and their impossible dreams.
The austere and solemn atmosphere of Setting The Woods On Fire (SubPop, 1994), with heartfelt declamations such as Good Luck Morning and Feeling No Pain in the tradition of proletarian rock, marks another step toward the humanitarian folk-rock envisioned by Chris Eckman. The album becomes most intense when Eckman delivers the apocalyptic Firetrap, with Glenn Slaters organ tolling like a requiem, or when Torgerson launches into the galloping lament of Pass Me On Over. Rather than Fairport Convention, it is Neil Young who looms over the martial waltz of Bordertown, the funereal one of Up In The Graveyard, the lopsided country-rock of Promised, and the gloomy chant of Night Drive. The album also contains, in embryonic form, that of a grass-roots group intent on rough-hewn, somber strumming through the honky-tonk of Old Crow and the boogie-soul of Hole In The Mountain. The two leaders alternate vocals, she more passionate and domestic, he more epic and metaphysical.
Meanwhile, a covers album had also been released, Satisfied Mind (SubPop, 1993).
The orchestral arrangements of Devils Road (Virgin, 1996) suggest that the group wants to shed its folk-rock label, but the moving The Light Will Stay On, When Fortune Smiles, and Christmas Valley are in fact more deeply rooted than ever in that tradition. The new production direction, however, brings out similarities with Nick Cave and all emphatic music of religious derivation.
Eckman changes style profoundly with Nighttown (Virgin, 1997), an album arranged in a bold, unrestrained way, with violins, cello, and Slaters now electronic keyboards (Tremble Goes the Night). It is the urban counterpart to the rustic atmosphere of the previous work.
This idea was explored more fully on Trail Of Stars (Glitterhouse, 1999), which also features violin, cello, clarinet, viola, trombone, piano, synthesizer, mellotron, tapes, samples, and electronics, in addition to Fred Chalenor on bass. The effort pays off in Last Tears, On The Day, Desert Skies, and Gold, while Crime Story and On The Day maintain the groups earlier storytelling approach.
Death Valley Days (Glitterhouse, 1998) is a collection of rarities.
Eckman and Torgerson also recorded several albums as Chris And Carla, where they indulge in playing everything it would not be proper to play in the Walkabouts: Shelter For An Evening (SubPop, 1993), which gathers live acoustic performances, and Life Full Of Holes (Glitterhouse, 1995). These records, especially the second, however, seem simply like Walkabouts outtakes (the latter also features a host of guest musicians).
Nights Between Stations (Glitterhouse, 1995) is another live album
recorded in Europe and credited to Chris & Carla.
Swinger 500 (Glitterhouse, 1998) is the most creative part of the duo's
trilogy.
Here, the duo experiments with elegant orchestration and texture, building on
Walkabouts' experiments with electronics, loops, samples and noises.
The resulting atmosphere is closer to trip-hop and ambient music than to
roots-rock.
And the instrumental Bingo Catastrophe even steals the show from
the traditional ballads (best Mercury Rising and Black Rope Tied).
The futuristic score of Electric Wire and the
Nick Cave-ian Swinger 500 mark the borders of their new phase.
The Walkabouts paid tribute to European folk on Train Leaves at Eight (Glitterhouse, 2000) through a number of covers performed by an exceptional cast.
Chris Eckman debuted solo with A Janela (2000).
Hst was the duo of Eckman and Al DeLoner that released The Damage Suite (2001).
i (2002) was an album recorded by Eckman, Torgerson, Glenn Slater, Curt Eckman and Grant Eckman.
Eckman was one of the great American poets of the Frontier, but his is the Frontier of small provincial towns, still immersed in a history that is that of the Puritans and the first settlers. His modern stories are in fact steeped in symbols dating back to that era, which therefore establish a striking bridge between yesterday and today.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
The Walkabouts' Ended Up a Stranger (Glitterhouse, 2001) features a
more contemporary sound and less structured compositions, two facts which may add up
to "experimental", to "transitional" or to "failed".
Lazarus Heart, Life The Movie and Cul De Sac
(and a stellar cast of musicians)
keep the album interesting despite several unfocused tracks.
Slater pens two instrumentals (Mary Edwards and Incidento).
Drunken Soundtracks (Glitterhouse, 2002) collects rarities, and
Shimmers (Glitterhouse, 2003) is a career retrospective.
The EP Slow Days With Nina (Shingle, 2003) is a tribute to Nina Simone.
Meanwhile,
Eckman formed the Strange for Nights of Forgotten Films (2004) with the Croatian band Bambi Molesters, i.e. Dalibor Pavicic (guitar), Dinko Tomljanovic (guitar), Lada Furlan Zaborac (bass) and Hrvoje Zaborac (drums).
A Lie of the Mind (2003) was a collaboration between Mark Nichols and Carla Torgerson.
Carla Torgeson's solo Saint Stranger (Glitterhouse, 2005) is a wildly experimental work, a puzzle of vocal, electronic and rhythmic elements.
The Walkabouts quintet (Glenn Slater on keyboards, Chris Eckman on vocals,
Carla Torgerson on guitars, Terri Moeller on drums, and newcomer
Michael Wells on bass) is in excellent shape on
Acetylene (Glitterhouse, 2005), an angry, political work
that continues the assimilation of synthesizers, tapes and samples
into their folk-rock format while partially steering towards a more
aggressive sound. The problem remains in the quality of the songs: the
superb performance is not enough to redeem acerbic tunes that seem to be
a mere pretext to deliver Eckman's views on the world.
Chris & Carla returned with Fly High Brave Dreamers (2007).
Chris Eckman released several solo albums:
The Black Field (2004),
The Last Side of the Mountain (2008),
Harney County (2013),
Where the Spirit Rests (2021),
The Land We Knew the Best (2025).
Eckman was also a member of the trio Dirtmusic along with Chris Brokaw of Codeine and Hugo Race (guitarist for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), documented on Dirtmusic (2007), BKO (2010), Troubles (2013), Lion City (2014), Bu Bir Ruya (2018).
The Walkabouts returned with Travels in the Dustland (2011), a lazy collection by talented veterans who simply sit back, relax, and play.
The Casting Nets were Eckman,
Chantal Acda (vocals) and Eric Thielemans (percussion) that released
Casting Nets
(2014)
and
Gold Coast
(2018).
The Frictions,
formed
in Slovenia, were
Eckman, Bernard Kogovek (guitar), Tomi Popit (bass) and Luka alehar (drums),
documented on
Halogen Sky
(2011) and
Torch
(2019).
The Strange returned with Echo Chamber (2018).
Carla Torgerson released the solo album Beckonings (2024).
