Wino, Adrift: Liferafts for the Doomed

Among the favorite four-letter words of doom and stoner heads out there, “Wino” has to be high on the list. For almost 30 years, Scott “Wino” Weinrich has built a legacy unequaled in underground rock and metal. Just because it’s fun to run down the list: The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, The Obsessed (again), Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, and most recently his own Wino solo band with J.P. Gaster of Clutch and the now-departed Jon Blank, the doom dream-team supergroup, Shrinebuilder, and his new jam project Premonition. He’s nothing if not prolific, and on Adrift (Exile on Mainstream), which he issues under the Wino banner, he presents his fans with his first acoustic album ever. Needless to say, if you’re a fan of Wino in any incarnation of his playing, Adrift is required reading.

Drum-less, bass-less and featuring only sporadic electric guitar, this is the raw Wino, and Weinrich’s songwriting is at the fore. The opener “Adrift” sets the tone for the record with a deeply personal, intimate vibe and classic feel, fulfilling both the function of opener and title track in embodying the mission of the album and starting it off in a way that provides listeners with an instant context for what follows. A folk ballad, it’s just one of the several song structures Weinrich works within on Adrift, and he follows it with the 12-bar blues of “I Don’t Care.” His voice, long a trademark in the sundry bands he’s fronted, is tenser than a lot of the kind throwaway Appalachian or Delta blues players, but he handles it well and the album’s first electric guitar solo, which fades the track out at the end, covers a lot of ground.

“Hold on Love” was an advance track on MySpace and a good choice by whoever picked it, either Weinrich or Exile on Mainstream, because after only listening to it once online and putting on the album for the first time, I immediately recognized it and remembered the double-tracked vocals of the chorus. Another storytelling song, it’s one of the most complete tracks on Adrift, and where some of the ultra-bare arrangements on the album feel like they could have been fleshed out or at very least would have been were this not Weinrich’s first exploration of the medium, “Hold on Love” is complete in every sense, soulful and sincere. Another, more mournful electric solo keeps the energy established in “I Don’t Care” alive as “Mala Suerte” comes on with what are probably the “heaviest” sonics Adrift has to offer.

Electric guitar matches the acoustic note for distorted note throughout almost the entire song, and it’s the only time Weinrich employs that tactic on Adrift, but it’s notable also because it goes to show how intricately structured the album is. We opened with “Adrift,” wholly acoustic, and gradually built to “Mala Suerte,” which is as electric as the record gets, Wino’s vocals making the song a highlight over the deft guitar turns and unafraid solos. “Old and Alone,” returns to the entirely acoustic form and is inevitably a comedown, both because of that and because seething rage is probably one of the hardest emotions to pull off acoustically – which is part of what made Bob Dylan so great when he was – and for all his experience as a player, Wino is relatively new to presenting it in the context of a record.

If there’s a dip, however, the Motörhead cover “Iron Horse/Born to Lose” is an immediate restoration of momentum – another example of how well pieced together Adrift is. I never thought acoustic Motörhead could work, but Weinrich makes it anthemic, turning lines like “Iron horse is wife/Iron horse his life” into a mission statement and a creed on which a life could be based. As the centerpiece track and one of two covers (we’ll get there), it stands as one of the strongest performances on the album. “Suzanes Song” is the first entirely instrumental piece and provides a meditative transition from the righteousness of “Iron Horse/Born to Lose” into the closing half of Adrift, which is marked by the heartfelt brotherly lovesong, “DBear.” Accessible and near universal in its application, the song is also deeply personal lyrically and a return to the folk feel of the opener.

“Whatever” is among several of the tracks on which Weinrich mentions children, missing children, having children taken away by divorce, life-circumstances, etc. (“Hold on Love” also addressed the topic), but if any objections are raised either to the sappiness or the emotionality, first off, what the hell, man? and second, it’s just one of the sincere emotions prevalent on Adrift. Again, Wino follows with a cover, this time Savoy Brown’s “Shot in the Head,” with a banner electric solo by Ray Tilkens, who also recorded and mixed all but the following track, “O.B.E.,” which is just under three minutes of electric guitar volume swells, occasional acoustic strums and sustained drones – a much-needed change of pace and approach going into the end of the album – recorded separately from the rest of the material in California by Christian Castano and featuring Jim “Sparky” Karow on second guitar.

Weinrich caps Adrift energetically with “Green Speed,” a song that could just as easily have been plugged in, rocking, headbanging, driving down the proverbial stoner rock highway. A ringing lead permeates the acoustic rhythm track, and there’s even a bass drum — the only percussion anywhere on the album — buried deep in the mix. It’s a driving rock number one way or another, and a surprise for anyone who’s gotten that far on Adrift to find it tacked on the end. It probably wouldn’t have worked anywhere else on the record, but if you take anything away from this review (aside from the excessive verbiage), let it be that Adrift is fantastically constructed. Wino kicks out another killer rock solo and the album fades to its close.

Fans of the man’s work don’t need the likes of me to recommend the album. As principals in American doom go, Wino has probably contributed to the genre more than any other single figure, and on Adrift, he moves carefully into this new territory and despite any missteps, ultimately lives up to his pedigree in terms of both songwriting and performance. I’d be interested to hear any subsequent record in the acoustic vein tool around more with arrangements, bringing in outside instrumentation and players, etc., but this is Wino being Wino at its base, and I get the feeling it’s not the last we’re going to hear of Weinrich in the medium. Adrift is the exciting first public show of this side of Wino’s composing and playing, and it is not to be missed.

Wino on MySpace

Exile on Mainstream

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One Response to “Wino, Adrift: Liferafts for the Doomed”

  1. UKGuy says:

    Sounds awesome – looking forward to my copy arriving – hopefully in the nice wood cigar case!

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