Travis Kline creates More Time
By SAM PFEIFLE | November 26, 2008
With a tidy five-song EP, More Time, Travis Kline is the newest entrant in Portland's burgeoning alt-country renaissance. He's got the tousled hair and plaid shirt with the mother-of-pearl snaps, so he's got the look down. And for his first proper release, he's gathered some No Depression types from near and far. Far: Jon Graboff, one of Ryan Adams's Cardinals, playing a lovely pedal steel. Near: Roy A. Clark, current keyboard player for Rick Charette (if you can stay depressed after a Charette show, you're just no fun).Kline's got plenty of other help in his home studio, too, Roy Davis, Todd Hutchisen, and Justin Maxwell among them. But Kline remains front and center and the sound is fairly cohesive. If anything, there's too much going on. There are times — from the open of "Anyway," where the acoustic and steel are split into the left and right channels introducing some pop rock, to the finish of "On High St.," where a cacophonous piano heads a purposely spiteful finish to a bouncy strut — when it just seems like Kline's over-thinking things. This is country, at its heart, and country needn't be so involved. Just let the songs and the instruments do their work.
When that happens, as on the slow and hushed title track, or on the shuffling "A Thought," which finishes the disc, Kline really shines. Every one of the songs here is about love lost. On the first four tunes, we find that someone is alone or lonely. Only on that last track, though, does Kline seem comfortable with himself. His reedy tenor quickens, aiming toward Slaid Cleaves, and the rhythm is relaxed and confident. Maybe it's because Kline has finally accepted his fate: "And if you're wanting to feel different about everything you've done/Don't look back on what has happened, cuz those times are done and gone."
As an early offering, this EP is a well-produced and -executed introduction that'll get Kline in the door. If he wants to stick around, though, he's going to have to develop a signature sound to separate him from the pack.
Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com.
MORE TIME | Released by Travis Kline | with Roy Davis and the Dregs + Pete Kilpatrick + Marie Moreshead | at SPACE, in Portland | Nov 28 | www.traviskline.com
Related:
Falling into you, Music Seen: Ocean and Pontiak, Please please me, More 
- Falling into you
Between Ron Harrity's skills as recording engineer, label guru (Peapod Recordings), and guitarist/sideman, he's racking up an impressive resume (see the accompanying review of the Isobell record for more details), and the new Honey Clouds record just adds to the list.
- Music Seen: Ocean and Pontiak
The day after Ocean's predictably under-attended (30-40 people) Cinco de Mayo performance at SPACE, a friend who also attended asked what I thought. "So loud," I said. "So slow," he responded. It wasn't hard to catch the reverence in both reactions.
- Please please me
For pure output, not many local bands can top the Leftovers, who next week drop their fourth full-length album, Eager to Please , with Oglio/Crappy Records, since 2005's debut, Stop Drop Rock & Roll (and they had an EP before that). And we won't even take away points because "full-length," for them, doesn't quite reach 40 minutes.
- Put your skirt on
Portland's aggressive new frontgal can hit all the notes while she hits you in the face.
- Last call
One of the big topics of social conversation in Portland last week was the anonymous Portland Point blog's ruthless, somewhat self-negating takedown of the Honey Clouds' May 23 CD-release show.
- Greetings and salutations
The film, a decidedly unlikely crowd-pleaser, has had a charmed year so far. It won a Special Jury Award upon its world premiere at Austin, Texas's SXSW Film Festival, and an Audience Award at the prestigious Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in North Carolina, becoming something of a "little documentary that could" on the festival circuit.
- Gods of rock
SPACE Gallery will be awfully loud Thursday, with the CD release of Sun Gods in Exile's Black Light, White Lines, supported by Ogre and the debut of Murcielago. Last Friday's L'Animaux Tryst showcase and this show are sonic polar opposites on the SPACE spectrum, but good for them for giving some boot-stomping guitar-rock a chance.
- Local Sprouts dig in
For two years, the Local Sprouts Cooperative has been creating a name for itself as a sustainable and healthy catering and meal cooperative in Portland. Hanifa Washington, a worker-owner and chef, likens it to "Superman in slo-mo," saying that the organization has experienced a "steady advance" since its inception in 2007.
- Music Seen: Assemble
This month's Evolve2Advance bash, "Assemble," the latest in a series celebrating the convergence of visual art, music, food, and community, was one of those events whose status update should have read, "Come to SPACE right now for this very cool and under-attended event."
- Music Seen: Neko Case + Haru Bangs
First things first: Neko Case is the complete package, an unmitigated bombshell (gorgeous, wry, self-effacing) with a singular artistic vision (country/folk songs so heavy on metaphor and animistic and obscure mythological references that you could — and should — unpack them for months) and a voice like an air-raid siren.
- Less
Topics:
Music Features
, Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music, More
, Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music, Ryan Adams, Pete Kilpatrick, Roy Davis, Marie Moreshead, Travis Kline, Travis Kline, Justin Maxwell, Less
