Earlier this month, Portland’s Kasey Anderson dropped another album in our hands. On Heart Of A Dog, he’s backed by his band The Honkies. You can tell right off that Anderson has taken a slightly new path, one capitalizing in blues-oriented rock. He still has those drawl-tinged, country-like vocals, but Heart Of A Dog is heavier and greater in overall scope. “The Wrong Light”, opening track from the new album, screams with wild, bluesy electric guitars wrought with distortion. And Anderson’s vocals, too, seem more confident in their gritty, back-country nature. “The Wrong Light” is cool. Very cool. Anderson knows this, and he flaunts it on “The Wrong Light” in the most tantalizing of ways.

Heart Of A Dog is out now on Red River Records.

Download: “The Wrong Light” by Kasey Anderson

The line between roots music and downright country music has blurred of late. Country pop artists tend to say they draw influence from powerful down-home roots artists, but rarely sound like them. So, to call Kasey Anderson an alt-country artist because of the twang in his vocals, or the subtly delightful stories he tells, would be absolutely absurd. What you year on Nowhere Nights are the words of an artist deeply rooted to what it used to mean to be a songwriter with some sad stories to tell. And that makes his music virtuous.

Anderson’s distraught yet relaxed vocals consistently sound like the drizzling of rain on a tin roof. He has a smooth sense of tranquility as he moves through tracks like “Leavin’ Kind” and “From Now On”. These songs are meant be played by candlelight amidst smoke and dusty glass. There is a painful reminiscence of Grayson Capps in his voice. He sings like a cool Dad – he never really raises his voice, even when he seems most upset. This is cat is cool as ice tea on a hot summer’s day.

Nowhere Nights is a perfect catalyst for why Kasey Anderson deserves every bit of confidence in his abilities to perform and create. He keeps it simple – write sad/pretty songs, sing them well, and pluck the good ole acoustic or soft electric guitar in a classic country/folk style. So I unpack my dreams and arrange them on the shelf / started passing out little pieces of myself, he bouts on “Real Gone”. Yep, that pretty much explains it.

Kasey Anderson: I Was A Photograph (Blake’s Song) [mp3]

Kasey Anderson: Sooner/Later [mp3]

Red River Records [CD/LP, 2009]

1. Bellingham Blues
2. All Lit Up
3. Sooner/Later
4. Home
5. Torn Apart
6. Leavin’ Kind
7. Nowhere Nights
8. From Now On
9. I Was A Photograph (Blake’s Song)
10. Like Teenage Gravity
11. Real Gone

Today, a few blogs have joined together to exclusively premiere demos off Kasey Anderson’s upcoming LP, Nowhere Lights. The new album doesn’t hit until February of next year via Red River Records, but thanks to this post and the other participating blogs, you now have a chance to win it early. As a massive bonus, these early copies will not only be on vinyl, they’ll be hand numbered and signed by Anderson himself.

Each participating blog will debut a demo version of a song off Anderson’s forthcoming LP. These demos come from the Nowhere Nights Demo Sessions. Now here’s where you, the reader comes in: be among the first to use the clues from these various blogs to form a phrase, which will guide you to your signed, hand-numbered, vinyl copy of Nowhere Nights.

FensePost’s clue is written on the album art below the exclusive mp3 of “Nowhere Nights”. Now head over to Kasey Anderson’s Blog for the next step. And if you missed the previous one, backtrack it over to My Aimz Is True.

Kasey Anderson: Nowhere Nights (Demo) [mp3]

An old memory: I recall grabbing coffee at Stewarts in Bellingham one summer long ago while visiting a friend. There on a rack tucked into a corner was a face I recognized. It was Kasey Anderson; the release was Harold St. Blues and I soon had “Boulevard” on repeat. Since then Anderson has released Dead Roses (2004) and The Reckoning (2007).

It’s now 2009 and so far this year, Kasey Anderson has been a busy man. Already he has dropped two EPs, both full of tracks off two upcoming albums out this coming fall and winter, and both available for complimentary download from Anderson’s website. The Real Gone EP has five tracks off the upcoming Nowhere Nights and Mercy EP the same off the pending The Lucky Ones.

Today Anderson releases Way Out West, a collection of twelve covers from artists as diverse as Arcade Fire, Springsteen, Dylan, and Marah. The album is also available for free download, this time from Red River Records. It’s an eclectic expanse of tracks, many of which receive complete overhauls from their original states. Take, for example, “Keep The Car Running” by Arcade Fire, where Anderson’s hashing keeps all but the chorus recognizable.

High points on Way Out West are vast. There’s the Dylan track, for one, “High Water (For Charley Patton)” and the ballad “To Live Is To Fly”, a Townes Van Zandt original.

As alt-country goes, Anderson’s songs are filled with descriptive tales, colorful storyboards that paint themselves on the back of your eyelids. This style lends itself well to songs like Tom Waits’ “Hold On” and Springsteen’s “Open All Night” and even Pearl Jam’s “Drifting”. It all leads up to one realization: Way Out West is not your typical album packed with covers in that it’s better than your typical album packed with covers. Way better.

Kasey Anderson: High Water (For Charley Patton) [mp3]

Kasey Anderson: To Live Is To Fly [mp3]

Red River Records [Digital LP, 2009]

1. Open All Night (Bruce Springsteen)
2. Keep The Car Running (Arcade Fire)
3. Hold On (Tom Waits)
4. Days Go By (Keith Urban)
5. Drifting (Pearl Jam)
6. Walls (Tom Petty)
7. High Water (For Charley Patton) (Bob Dylan)
8. Round Eye Blues (Marah)
9. I Still Miss Someone (Johnny Cash)
10. To Live Is To Fly (Townes Van Zandt)