It might help to start this review with a recap of my morning ritual for the last three years. It goes like this: I wake up, brush my teeth, shake the sleep out of my eyes, head downstairs. I get some Egg Beaters going on the stove and then sit on a kitchen stool with a mechanical pencil and a Sharpie, slowly drawing out a Possum Trot Orchestra logo on my forearm. It’s usually gone by my second drink later that evening, but it feels good while it’s there. Listening to Life & Times, Going Back to Vicksburg or The Possum Trot Orchestra, I was happy with my little temporary tattoo. And then I heard Harbor Road.

      Recorded with finesse and sensitivity (and bite) by Tom Tempel at Tempel Recording Studio, and produced by John Minton, Harbor features 13 new compositions by Minton and Susie Suraci, and a cover of “Bad Luck Blues” (made most famous by Blind Lemon Jefferson). The record is the fourth in as many years for IPFW professor Minton – starting with 2003’s Life & Times, followed in 2004 by Going Back to Vicksburg (which featured bountiful contributions by the nascent Possum Trot Orchestra), and including last year’s proper band debut, The Possum Trot Orchestra. And while each of those records are excellent, Harbor is their best yet, and stands tattered shoulder to tattered shoulder with recent Americana releases by the likes of John Prine, Shawn Colvin, Nanci Griffith and Neil Young.

      Harbor opens with the title track, a rollicking lament ostensibly about child labor in the Boston bay area in the early 1900s, but relevant to the class divide and working conditions still evident in contemporary society. That’s where about half of Harbor finds its direction – many of the songs deal literally or metaphorically with the state of the union, but never in a heavy-handed or awkward way. The songs on Harbor are short stories, often cinematic in scope, tackling weighty topics like disaster relief, veterans affairs, corporate takeover of radio airwaves, the rising cost of housing, Nashville’s star-making machinery and more. But like folk troubadours from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan to Billy Bragg, the Possums balance the matters of the world with politics of the heart – and songs like “Tennessee Unbound,” “Winterlight,” “Appetite” and the gorgeous album-closer, “Wonderful,” deal with love and loss in a mature, daring way.

      If you’ve seen the Possums perform live, you’re likely familiar with their acoustic arrangement – Minton and Susie Suraci on acoustic guitar, Susie’s husband Rob on bass and the talented Dave Kartholl on mandolin. The studio, however, allows the Possums to stretch out a bit. Full band arrangements often swirl around the multi-talented Rob Suraci – who in addition to electric and stand-up bass, takes over drums, electric and acoustic guitar, odd percussion, harmonica and more, including handling lead vocals for the first time as a Possum on “Bad Luck Blues.” Minton adds five-string and tenor banjo, lap steel, acoustic and electric guitar and accordion, while Susie plays guitars, keyboard and organ. Kartholl contributes brilliant mandolin work.

      And while the album is definitely a band album – the driving intro to “The Devil at the Card Party” and the backward solo on “The Content of Your News” are especially exciting – there are still “John songs” and “Susie songs.” As usual, Minton’s songs are steeped in tradition and inspiration and yet wholly his own and as excellent as ever. And though we’ve known how good Susie is since her Flying Suraci days, and from her contributions to The Possum Trot Orchestra, with Harbor she truly establishes herself as one of the best songwriters in the area, if not the entire genre. She’s simply sublime on this album. Several of her songs on Harbor could be covered by artists in Nashville or Austin and be the best thing on the Americana/folk/alt-country airwaves (provided such airwaves exist). In particular, her song “Ed” deals with the tragedy of Katrina with an insight, humanity, defiance and sadness that strikes to the heart of the situation in a way that most other songwriters have missed. It’s a gentle powerhouse.  

      All that, and the album cover is pretty nice.

      So anyway, mid-way through my second spin of Harbor I called up Dusty Neal at the Studio 13 tattoo parlor. The Possum Trot Orchestra had stepped up to the microphone and delivered on all their promises, and now it was time I did the same.

      Harbor Road is available now at Borders, Wooden Nickel on North Anthony and online at cdbaby.com. Check out their performance dates at www.possumtrotorchestra.com.

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