Leslie & the Badgers’ “Roomful of Smoke”: Heartland to Heart

For starters, I want to make it very clear: I am not on Leslie & the Badgers' payroll. I genuinely admire this Los Angeles-based band - a polyglot quintet that deftly trades in what could be dubbed Eclectic Americana. Oh, sure, Badgers guitarist Glenn Oyabe bought me a bowl of chicken noodle soup and an egg cream at Canter's deli on Fairfax last week. But that's only because I looked so enfeebled by hunger. He thought I'd be too weak to write anything else about the band's wonderful new album Roomful of Smoke, which I already acknowledged in a MOG post last month and which was finally available via iTunes and Amazon as of the beginning of July.

Who was I to say "no" to a free bowl of chicken noodle soup and an egg cream? So here we are. The Badgers - singer, guitar strummer, and chief songwriter Leslie Stevens; bass-player Ben Reddell; drummer Travis Popichak; violinist Charlene Huang; and the aforementioned, flyin'-fingered Oyabe - finished their recent saloon-concert tour of the Western U.S. with a performance at the Spaceland nightclub in L.A.'s Silver Lake district to celebrate the release of Roomful of Smoke. Needless to say, the celebration was warranted. It was nothing less than a coup for the band to have landed David Bianco as the album's producer - the same guy whose studio expertise enhanced the recent chart-topping Bob Dylan collection. And Bianco's collaboration with the Badgers has verve, honesty and charm that render it irresistible.

If the delicate confessional-folk approach of "Los Angeles" seems like an odd way for such a vibrant band to kick off an album, the song's sheer beauty and its poetic view of an outsider's search for succor and inspiration in the big city easily dispel any reservations. And it serves as a table-setter for the exhilarating, twanging country-rock of the title tune. As I wrote last month about "Roomful of Smoke," the song recalls '70s-era L.A. country-rock innovators such as the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, while embracing one of Stevens' favorite themes: an optimistic belief that we can be delivered from hardship and strife by those who love and support us.

A Missouri native with a clever but gentle and occasionally self-deprecating sense of humor, Stevens has studied classical voice and played guitar in a punk band, but has truly found her métier in the rustic/urban old/new mix of the Badgers' music. I hear echoes of Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Iris Dement, Teresa Brewer, and Martha Wainwright in Stevens' sometimes girlish, sometimes bruised vocals and her ever-sincere songwriting. Her ability to convey longing is a gift that she shares in earnest, and her literate, emotionally-accessible, sometimes whimsical and always heartfelt lyrics are crucial to the band's appeal.

Her attributes are in abundance on Roomful of Smoke, which actually benefits from re-recorded versions of three Badgers songs - "Old Timers," "My Tears Are Wasted on You," and "Salvation." Those tracks appeared on the Badgers' first album which, in retrospect, seems more like a collection of demos - albeit one that I covet. The new arrangements and the sound quality are improvements. So Stevens achingly, lovingly reminisces about dreams unfulfilled and a companion who met an unexpected fate on "Old Timers"; and she testifies on the traditional-sounding country waltz "My Tears Are Wasted on You," as Huang bows a mournful fiddle. "Salvation" is an apex of sorts with Oyabe delivering some more serious twang and the whole ensemble rumbling and rocking behind Stevens' plea for comfort and relief.

Even when covering the work of other songwriters, Stevens makes their material her own. One of my incessant play-and-replay cuts on the album is "Winter Fugue," composed by Reddell but letter-perfect for Stevens to interpret. Its tenderness is profound, as is its neediness, warmth, and cry for intimacy - the latter given a subtle sexiness as Stevens delivers it. I know that Reddell has a few more compositions of his own that are well worth hearing, having caught him singing and playing originals with Welldiggers Banquet, a local roots-rock band that also features Popichak on drums. But "Winter Fugue" is downright revelatory.

When you consider Stevens' musical background, Huang's classical violin studies, Oyabe's stint in the cult power-pop band the Moberlys, and the Welldiggers excursions by Reddell and Popichak, the myriad influences audible on Roomful of Smoke make perfect sense. Which is why their cover of the 1981 Deniece Williams R&B hit "Silly" doesn't seem jarring. Shored up by a horn section, they give the song a Memphis/Muscle Shoals Studio sound and find the nexus where soul music meets country-ballad.

Leslie & the Badgers

With tongue-in-cheek and a dip into Western swing, "Don Juan" pokes fun at a swain who finds out that his latest target for seduction has his number. "What Fall Promised" - a rumination on the changing seasons - is borderline exotic, with a Gypsy violin intro that leads to a lively, Eastern European-styled melody.

Perhaps the most moving piece they do is "Ballpark Lights," a lovelorn reverie that again hits the sweet spot between country and soul with Stevens at her plaintive best and Huang's fiddle matching the singer's mood. Their most otherworldly moments can be found within "If I Was a Linen," which evokes a ghostly carnival or midnight at a Weimer cabaret. (Is that someone playing a saw? I think so.) And the most frolicsome thing they do has to be "Americans in Rome," Stevens' witty, romantic jaunt through the Eternal City, which is carried along by Oyabe's dulcet, nimble guitar and the jubilantly chugging rhythm section.

The final cut on Roomful of Smoke is a version of L.A. singer-songwriter Buffy Visick's heedlessly cheerful novelty tune, "It's Okay to Trip," which is a sing-a-long at most Badgers shows. And, dare I say, that's where it works best.

Which brings me back to the Spaceland album-release party. Enhanced by a few Badgers irregulars on electric and pedal-steel guitar and back-up vocals, the band was smokin' in the best possible way. (Although it was a hot-box in the filled-to-overflowing joint, the sprinkler system never went off.) The crowd response was ardent.

Such a fervid reception was biz-as-usual for the Badgers who have been playing various venues around L.A. for the past couple of years. It helped that the set list - mostly drawn from Roomful of Smoke, with a few selections from their previous releases, the aforementioned home-grown album and an EP - was familiar to the fans in the house. Ultimately, there was an air of confidence that recording a potent, memorable album and touring for a month can bring to a group of musicians.

The magic of music is so multi-faceted. When it's working, it can inspire, elucidate, excite, and nurture - and certainly, it entertains. So my internal barometer - defining what I believe to be the good stuff - detects the music's capacity to do any of the above. If it fits my standards in any of those realms, I say "Aye!" The more ways it satisfies my standards, the better I think it is. It's all so personal. And personally speaking, Leslie & the Badgers' Roomful of Smoke does it for me on every front.

Note: The song "Roomful of Smoke" is available for streaming on the MOG Player; and an acoustic version of "Silly" was captured in the wild and can be enjoyed on the video beneath this very post.