The recording project of Maryland’s Phillips Saylor Wisor, Stripmall Ballads emerged onto the ‘outsider folk’ scene (if such a thing exists) in 2008 with Since Jimmy Died, and has released a number of haunting releases in the intervening years. Melding Appalachian musical sensibilities with heartbroken, downcast lyrics and dry wit, Stripmall Ballads updates traditional songwriting for the contemporary time, the age-old concerns of death and longing cast through a modern lens to include everything from PTSD and estrangement to Gatorade and rubber gloves.
Stripmall Ballads are back with a brand new release, Good For a While, a two-track EP that aims to pave the way for a brand new full-length album in 2019. Along with Evan Harris (bass), Jeremy Ebert (slide guitar), Darren Whitaker (guitar and vocals), Brandon Woods (drums and vocals) and Joshua P. James (harmony vocals), Phillips Saylor Wisor has evolved his sound so that it has something of a paradoxically rich lo-fi style—bringing to mind Gillian Welch and Townes Van Zandt but also big rocks bands like R.E.M.
A-side “You Were Good (I Was Good For a While),” draws inspiration from John Kennedy Toole’s Neon Bible, the Southern Gothic overtones fleshing out a world of strange violence and constant struggle. There’s nostalgia in the style too, though for what and when is unclear, as though the narrator understands that the time and place for which he pines is nothing more than a idealised fiction. The result is a gentle, lilting sadness that gradually yet constantly tightens its grip on things, the narrator’s desperation rising through the minor chords.
B-side ‘Yes Praise, Mercy Yes’ is a plaintive song of resistance that is at once pessimistic and unyielding, as though understanding the futility of protest against power but at the same time drawing energy and purpose from it. Such a nuanced and wistful take on opposition and resilience is made all the more poignant by the fundamental simplicity of the track—relying as it does on mournful vocals and the wistful spirit of our time.
Good for a While is out now via Freeloader Free Press. and you can get the previous Stripmall Ballads albums from his website.
Cover art by Sadie Rapp