Rose City Band – Earth Trip

Wilco meets Luna. Gram Parsons meets Wooden Shjips. Ripley Johnson is on top with his songwriting and latest band.

July 5, 2021. Portland, OR/ Cleveland, OH. In the vacuum of COVID’s space, Rose City Band forms “Earth Trip”, an eight-song paean to the cyclic simplicity of the (re)turns in life. With hushed reflectivity and quiet celebration, “Earth Trip” bears the country taste of pedal steel and harmonic mandolin. “Earth Trip” is the ingestion of a simple truth, skyward and underfoot: Connect and reconnect to the aural rhythms of nature. Tune in, turn on, and testify: “Earth Trip” is the woodland breath that focuses the fuzz of pandemic climate and musical change for your next psychedelic potlatch.

The musical embrace of Ripley Johnson, Rose City Band is the latest psychedelic permutation of artists spinning in the Oregonian Moon Duo and Wooden Shjips orbit. Accompanied by geologist and pedal steel guitarist, Barry Walker, Rose City Band benefits greatly from his deft musicianship. Moon Duo’s Sanae Yamada skillfully lifts the piano and keys. Rose City is complete with Ryan Jewel and John Jeffrey on percussion and drums. Together, June 21 marks the issue of the Rose City Band’s third release, “Earth Trip” from Chicago’s Thrill Jockey Records. “Earth Trip” is an immoderate indulgence for the vinyl enthusiast: Chromatic cabin-panel cover, glossy sliding sleeves, and earth-toned splatter disc. The art design is the perfect match for a perfect record.

Mount up, Hippies; it’s time to sidle your saddle to side one! “Silver Roses” sets the sonic pace. With the face-bending pedal steel of “Silver Roses”, track one echoes young Ontario Young’s “Helpless”. Borne from the tempest of Johnson’s virus-torn tour, “Silver Roses” captures the highway haul home. Delightfully down tempo-ed and drum shuffled, “Silver Roses” sets the newly-found familiar for a life on a fast forward standstill.

Record stand-out, “World is Turning” is soon to be an alt country classic. Rose City Band invites you to step to the easy boot shambling beat. The Ripley-paced melody of “World is Turning” features a tinkling honky-tonk piano rattle that slips your dance partner in loosely strewn circles. The moon dualling slide and rhythm guitar asks you to grab a breezy beverage and join the waltzing orbit, an Earth Trip traipse.

Side two rips off with “Lonely Places”. The call of the wild, “Lonely Places” is another upbeat country gem. “Lonely Places” features a perfectly paced, striding rhythm and hummable melody. The signature multi-track vocals give depth to its country simplicity. The pick of the peck, press play on “Lonely Places”. Next, toss your pack in the back of your pick ‘em up truck and hit the trail, your baby in hand and swinging, grooving hand.

While most of the album’s songs clock in under five minutes, the closer, “Dawn Patrol” stretches out into grateful space. This psych-drenched jam will drag you over the rainbow into classic Wooden Shjips territory. Replete in echoing Garcia-tones and spaced-out FX, “Dawn Patrol” may be my fave, but its too close to call. So, campers, while our summer sizzles with Earth-wide change, keep it cool in space with the Rose City Band’s “Earth Trip”.

RIYL: Wooden Shjips, Beachwood Sparks, Flying Burrito Brothers, Neil Young.

sticker and Rose City Band rolling papers included with my record.

Rose City Band makes our strange world livable …

Rose City Band are out with a new pure Americana album that rides nicely on the heels of Summerlong, a continuation into their countrified psychedelic wanderlust, splashing out bright and intoxicating lightheaded songs that are both danceable and couch-bound in the same breath, simply a delight to spin as the long orange fingers of the sun are edging over the horizon.

While Rose City are not formulaic, the richly textured breezy easy going seamless songs brought to light here are deeply new romantic meditations on stillness, space and the splendor of the world we live in, even if it all feels a bit strange and distracted these days, all of which feature Johnson’s (a member of Wooden Shjips) melodic pedal steel guitar and emancipated yet always very hauntingly lush vocals. As to the nature of the album, Ripley said, “Earth Trip was written during a period of sudden shocks and drastic lifestyle changes for me. I was forced to cancel extensive touring plans for 2020, where I found himself home for an extended period for the first time in years. No longer was I in constant motion, finally able to experience and enjoy the simple pleasures of home life, of being in one place, taking hikes in nature, bathing outside and waking with the dawn. All of this allows me to form new connections to my surroundings, everything from tending to a garden, to sleeping out under the stars. It may sound silly, nevertheless, I found renewed hope and healing in a more mindful relationship with the natural world.”

Yes, it’s a wondrous hazed introspective album where Johnson admits that several of his songs take on that feeling one gets from ingesting psychedelics and they’re just starting to come on, where the world begins to buzz and shimmers take hold of your peripheral vision. Again, the lap steel guitar, mandolin and jaw harp infuse and go on to not only enhance, but to play off of Johnson's lean yet ever present wasted guitar intonations with radiant overtones, allowing Earth Trip to ebb with confident musical tonalities that step outside of what one would normally expect, weaving feathered infectious grooves I simply can't get enough of. It’s a forthright honest engaging album that will have you instantly recognizing, if not participating in all of the attributes it manages to bring front and center.

Now, go have a great summer ...

*** The Fun Facts: The vinyl has been pressed to splatter green (called Forest) and splatter brown (called Wood), both in limited editions, along with a compact disc. First LP pressing will include a deluxe die-cut windowed packaging with four color printing on both the outside and inside of the jacket, also with a fully artworked heavy-weight cardstock printed inner sleeve and limited color variants. Limited packages also include special Rose City Band totes, rolling papers (which we all need more of) and stickers.

Review by Jenell Kesler