Box Set Rating Nashville Moon: 7 Sun Session: 6 The Black Ram: 8 Shohola: 7.5
How much Jason Molina sounds like he has a beard even though he doesn't 9.6

(Wendy's back and helping me to review this thick collection from the mellow folk king Jason Molina.)

ST: Today we are reviewing Sojourner, the box set from Jason Molina's latest incarnation, Magnolia Electric Co.
WW: It's four discs and a DVD filled with odds and ends culled from the recording sessions that produced his 2006 album Fading Trails. Released by Secretly Canadian, the four audio discs unearth content that Molina’s been hinting at for a while now: the Nashville Moon session, recorded with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio, the Sun Session, recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis, the Black Ram session, recorded by David Lowery at Sound of Music, and the Shohola session, which Molina recorded by himself.
ST: Box sets are always a mixed bag for me. Either they are just compilations - massive best-ofs - or (like Sojourner) B-sides, rarities, and out-takes. And often, whatever category the box-set falls into, they always smack more of capitalism than artistic endeavor. Sure, there are usually collectable trinkets for the fans, artwork and notes and whatnot, and the hidden musical gem or two, but overall I have a hard time convincing myself that it was the artist's vision and not the marketing department.
WW: Well, I can almost guarantee that for the most part, you're right. Honestly, I've never really known a fan of some band to buy a box set...they're obviously intended for the obsessive who's trawling for Maroon 5's towel sweat on Ebay or to be purchased as gifts.
ST: "Ooh! Jim loves KISS ! I heard him listening to them on the radio once! I've got $150 bucks...he's gonna love this 10 cd set with authentically reproduced Gene Simmon's codpiece." Yeah, there's a reason these things show up around the holidays.
WW: So what about Sojourner? As far as I can tell, there's no codpiece inside.
ST: Well, I refer to my distrust of box-sets as mixed bags for a reason. They tend to just be a bunch of junk I already have, or didn't really want, thrown in together with little rhyme or reason. That's why (pay attention readers at home) Sojourner is refreshingly different. Those that are fans of Jason Molina know that his genius is broad, but the glimpses he gives us are too short to see how deep. As we go on, I think you'll see that Sojourner is a long, engaging, and sometimes uncomfortable look into this mind as deep, clear, and solemn as a winter lake. So that's what I like about this box set. It's not random junk. There's a real theme here.
WW: Well, you brought up the theme, and as much as I hate to make blanket statements, Jason Molina is obsessed with the moon. There’s simply no other conclusion to draw from looking at the track list. Disc One – “No Moon on the Water” and “Nashville Moon”. Disc Two – “And the Moon Hits the Water”. Disc Three – “Memphis Moon” and Disc Four – “Spanish Moon Fall and Rise”.
ST: Well, I think It's less obsession with the moon as it is connection. It's a way of relating to the moon that I think all wanderers feel to some degree. The constant motion, the waxing and waning, the light that illuminates but never warms.
WW: Well, if anyone is a wanderer, it's Jason Molina. He's been touring constantly since, what, 1996?
ST: He's like a modern minstrel - always on the move. That's the theme I get from this box set. The freedom of constantly moving, but the deep ache for somewhere to call home. It's bittersweet, and bittersweet is Molina's middle name.
WW: I'm impressed not only with his ability to find a theme in the expansiveness of a box-set format, but with level of consistency in both quality and content throughout. You mention the bittersweet, and on cursory listens Sojourner can seem a little maudlin, but it’s also clear that Sojourner is testament to the joy that can be found in thoroughly mining one’s convictions. Here's a man dedicated to, like the moon, constantly moving, shining, and even if he can't be seen, tugging at the world with his influence.
ST: Heh...it's true...he pulls the indie-folk tide.
WW: It's hard to bring up specifics in a set a broad as this, any of these albums will evoke whatever scarred and desolate landscape your mind can conjure up, but I found Nashville Moon to be the most confident piece in the set. It’s hard to understand why this wasn’t the next big Magnolia project in and of itself, except that nearly half of its songs have been previously released.
ST: Maybe it is the confidence found in familiarity.
WW: I think you're right. Not that confidence makes for the most inspired listen. With the exception of “Hammer Down” the re-worked songs seem to suffer a bit in comparison with their previously released versions, as Nashville Moon reins in the band’s billowy reverb and replaces it with a subdued sound. “Bowery” is played at an even slower pace than the original, and “Down the Wrong Road Both Ways” gets the full band treatment instead of sticking to the original intimate voice-and-guitar formula.
ST: However, this is still better than the majority of dusky, raw voiced, Americana albums out there.
WW: Agreed. “North Star” (not to be confused with “North Star Blues”) features a slinky steel guitar that glides like a garotte through Molina’s lyrics, and “No Moon on the Water” and “Montgomery” grip you with a gritty, percussive edge. Throughout Nashville Moon, Molina’s broken-hearted lyrics are surrounded by the band’s warm sense of security, allowing him full range to display his grief and loneliness.
ST: In contrast, the solo Shohola is another story entirely. Self-recorded by Molina, it sounds like folk from a different time, a time of chapped hands and burnt-out candles. The sounds of “Night Country” are some of the starkest since the first self-titled Songs: Ohia record.
WW: Despondent and flickering, it’s not Molina’s usual songwriting-as-therapy. Rather, it’s a pale offering to the night, his voice wavering on the knife-edge of hope and resignation. When listening to this disc, it’s impossible not to picture cracked highways and watery red sunsets.
ST: Or the album art...a rough dark oil painting of a woman in the dark. It's spooky and unsettling. If you're a fan of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy style warble-rock, then Shohola is worth the price alone.

WW: Perhaps the most revealing disc is Black Ram, an album where Molina’s songs are played by a completely different band (including Andrew Bird); while they retain Molina’s distinctive style, they open the music up to a sense of growth that reflects his progress from Axxes and Ace on through to his current music. It’s more driven than the other three discs, maintaining a steady tread throughout each track. “Kanaha” is marked by a heavy beat that’s eventually washed out in reverb, while “Will O’ the Wisp” and “What’s Broken Becomes Better” pulse with toothy feedback. It's a taste of what his next incarnation may be.
ST: I agree. When I finally heard Black Ram, the rest of the set made more sense. Here is a man not wandering, but stretching out his travelings. He has a destination...he has a destiny...but can you blame him for not wanting to reach it just yet?
WW: Black Ram stands out with a sense of renewed possibility, and is a fitting bookend to the set. It’s as if the asthmatic ghosts that populate Magnolia Electric Co.’s landscape are ready to move outside the usual sphere and head down the open road, this time with the moon at their back. As Molina sings in “The Lamb’s Song”, “Has the will been broken? / Yes, but into an answer”, it’s clear that we may not know what lies down that road....
ST: ...or what the moonlight will flush from the shadows...
WW: ...but I have the feeling we’re about to find out.