JASON KUTCHMA

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Somewhere between Elvis Presley’s honorable discharge and his immediate sequestration under Colonel Parker’s fleshy, bejeweled wing, there existed a window of opportunity. What if, instead of “Paradise, Hawaiian Style,” we’d heard a deeper exploration of country and gospel music; what if he’d been backed by the Funk Brothers or the Wrecking Crew; what if Americana hadn’t come to mean either at best a rote recitation of Old Time music or at worst a bland, formulaic, slightly twangy version of Adult Contemporary? What if songs of genuine yearning, resolve, pain, and triumph drew in equal measure from both Hank Williams’ high lonesome and D. Boon’s credo, “Punk is whatever we made it to be.”?

J Kutchma and the Five Fifths are interested in trying to find out what that could sound like. This is, of course, not to say that the band bears any resemblance to the rhythm section/force of nature behind Motown’s hits or the greatest punk rock trio ever to climb in a van, only that the urgency with which they played, the trust they had in their bandmates, and the willingness to stumble upon How A Song Should Sound, to tear up the chart and start over—these are the hardest and best parts of playing music, and they’re the whole reason these five got together in the first place.

2.

“I have knocked around a lot and been hard hurt in plenty of ways,” he said huskily. “There were times I thought I would never get anywhere and it made me eat my guts, but all that is gone now. I know I have the stuff and will get there.”

“Get where?”

“Where I am going…”

-Roy to Memo, The Natural

Bernard Malamud, 1952

3.

Sundown, USA (JKutchma & The Five Fifths) – The record was made over several months in Durham, NC at three houses on Trinity, a storage unit on Old Oxford, & Sound Pure Studios by Donald Meints with additional engineering by James Phillips and Jason Richmond. Mastering by M.J.R. at Prairie Cat Mastering.

Sundown, USA (Jason Kutchma) – The record was made over a week at house on Trinity in Durham, NC. The songs were recorded live to a Zoom H4n. Mastering by Nick Petersen.

Detroit (JKutchma & Wesley Wolfe) – The record was made in a day at Jason’s house in Durham, NC. The songs were recorded live to four-track. Mastering by Wesley Wolfe. This album is available for free at Jason’s Bandcamp page.

Pastoral – The record was made over two days at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville NC. With the exception of a couple of guitar tracks and backup vocals, the songs were recorded live in the church sanctuary by Evan Bradford, ably assisted by Paul Blackwell. Pedal steel [courtesy of Nathan Golub] and vocal work was done at Track and Field Recording in Carrboro NC by Nick Petersen. Mastering also by Nick Petersen.

4.

“If you like the direct honesty of the blues, but want to move beyond the 12-bar format, enjoy the emotive themes of country music but balk at the frequent plunges into mawkish sentimentality, or relish the uplifting excitement of gospel singing but prefer your lyrics on the secular side…”