From folk and psych to Motown and beyond, the Deer branch out on 'The Beautiful Undead'

Formed around a decade ago in San Marcos when singer Grace Rowland wanted to record some songs she’d written after her acoustic trio the Blue Hit had splintered, the Deer have now made five albums together. “The Beautiful Undead,” released Sept. 9 on Austin label Keeled Scales, is their best yet — though nailing down exactly what kind of music the Deer makes is a challenge, even for them. Perhaps especially for them.

Various passages on the band’s own web pages give it a shot: “psychotropic folk,” “uninhibited, cosmic indie folk” and my favorite, “transcendental folk & stargaze surf music.” It’s perhaps telling that the word “folk” appears in all three of those — but it’s equally significant that the quintet’s sound branches out considerably from its folk roots.

“We’re an Austin band,” bassist Jesse Dalton offers, talking with Rowland on a mid-September day from New York during the Deer’s recent East Coast tour. That’s simple, yes, but also revealing: The hallmark of Austin music has always been its appreciation of artists who blur the lines between genres.

“It feels very much still to me like folk because of the lyrical content,” Rowland says. “There's tons of focus that goes on the lyrics, and the structure of the music is very rooted in folk, and there's a lot of homages to old-timey music and things that bring us back to our roots. But there's a lot of psychedelic elements, as well.” Dalton also notes that the Deer “have been toying with a lot of Motown-ish grooves that indie groups have taken to today.”

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On “The Beautiful Undead,” the Deer — which also features guitarist Michael McLeod, drummer Alan Eckert and multi-instrumentalist Noah Jeffries — internalize these disparate influences and create their own identity. From the propulsive rhythms that drive the captivating melody of opening track “Bellwether,” to the hypnotic groove and haunting vocal harmonies on “Columns,” to the spaghetti-Western-meets-mystic-eastern vibe of “Six-Pointed Star,” these 10 songs all fit naturally within the band’s musical environs.

Especially compelling is the track “I Wouldn’t Recognize Me,” for which they recently filmed a video that includes home-movie-style footage from the band’s decade together interspersed with shots of Rowland wading in the Guadalupe River with a long black cape. We sometimes use the phrase “I wouldn’t even recognize me” when considering what would happen if our younger and older selves encountered each other — but Rowland’s song makes it clear that this can be very much a good thing.

“I’ve been going through some trauma therapy for stuff that happened to me when I was a young adult, and it's brought out a lot of new techniques to take care of myself,” she explains. “One of them includes parenting my inner child. Whenever there's a narrative of low self-worth or self-deprecative cycles that I can get into, I have to work really hard to counteract that kind of stuff with a lot of compassion and care.

“That song came out of that process of talking to that kid, you know — hey, the stuff that happened to you is not your fault, and you're not broken forever. You have talent, you have joy, you have love, and it's all right here. It's everything that you need inside of you, and you're a different person now.”

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Other songs on “The Beautiful Undead” turn observations outward, touching upon political turmoil and climate change and other issues that have found their way into the Deer’s music “more in the last few years than ever,” Rowland says.

“At the heart of it, it's country music: It’s about love and life and death and very visceral things,” she continues. “But it's become more rock & roll in the past few years. And I feel like rock & roll touches on subjects that are a lot more tactile. They get a little more topical about what's happening around us and about the things that are concerning people.

“We have a little bit of power here to enter some of this in people's lives, if it's not there already, and make it not taboo to talk about personal freedoms, or the strife in the streets, or the struggles of people who have no voice. If we can lend some sort of voice to that, then we could maybe help somebody.”

Catch the band in concert on Oct. 22 at the Parish.

Here’s the video for the track “I Wouldn’t Recognize Me”:

More new Austin music

Here’s a look at other local records released in September.

Charley Crockett, 'The Man From Waco'

The latest from one of Austin’s most prolific musicians — this is Crockett’s 12th release since his 2015 debut — finds the San Benito native applying his contemporary take on old-school country to a loose concept-album format. Bookending the album, which came out Sept. 9, are short instrumentals titled “The Man From Waco Theme” and “The Man From Waco Finale.” At the center is the title track, a character sketch of a desperate outlaw that draws from old-West mythology classic murder ballads.

More:Charley Crockett brings the old-school country vibes to ACL Fest 2021

A dozen more songs attest to the melting pot of traditional styles that have propelled Crockett into the spotlight; in the past couple of years, he’s made his “Austin City Limits” TV debut and won emerging-artist honors at the Americana Music Awards. “The Man From Waco” draws significantly from Texas and southwestern geography, with song titles including “Trinity River” and “Odessa” as well as New Mexico’s “Horse Thief Mesa.”

After a busy fall tour that will take him across the United States and Europe, Crockett returns home for a two-night stand Dec. 16-17 at ACL Live.

Here’s the title track:

Andrea Magee, 'Belfast Girl'

A native of Northern Ireland, Magee moved to Austin in the mid-2010s as half of the folk-rock duo Beat Root Revival, eventually expanding her range with the trad-Irish group Ulla and the all-women quintet PAACK. But “Only Love,” Magee’s 2020 solo debut, served notice that she’s more than ready to step out front with her own music.

Now comes “Belfast Girl,” released Sept. 23, which retraces her journey back to the hometown that shaped her music and her worldview. Working with co-producer Dave Scher and engineer Stuart Sullivan, Magee crafts sophisticated singer-songwriter vignettes that highlight her soaring voice, as well as her instrumental versatility on acoustic guitar, flute, bodhrán and more.

Also vital to the record’s sound and style are Scher’s contributions on electric-acoustic guitar, bass and keyboard. Other contributors include drummer Michael Davila, bassist John Fremgen and many of her Beat Root Revival/Ulla/PAACK bandmates. Magee will celebrate the album’s release on Sept. 30 at 04 Center.

Here’s the video for the title track:

Black Angels, 'Wilderness of Mirrors'

The first album in five years from Austin’s torchbearers of psych-rock, released Sept. 16 on Partisan Records, finds the Angels grounded in the swirling walls of sound that are their trademark, even as they push outward in fresh directions. Come for the guitars drenched in fuzz, but stay for the accents of keyboards, strings, sitar, mellotron and more.

The subject matter on these 15 songs (clocking in at just under an hour) touches climate change, border walls and creeping authoritarianism, but with lyrics that are poetic and impressionistic as opposed to narrative storytelling. LouLou Ghelichkhani of Austin band Night Glitter guests on the dream-pop-flavored “Firefly,” chasing frontman Alex Maas’s lead vocals with a call-and-response delivered in French.

New to the band since 2017’s “Death Song” is Ramiro Verdooren, who helps to broaden the band’s range with contributions on more than a dozen instruments. Black Angels will highlight material from the new record when on Oct. 30 at Stubb’s as part of Levitation, the festival they created 15 years ago.

More:Levitation 2022 lineup will bring Osees, Jesus and Mary Chain, L7, King Gizzard to Austin

Here’s the video for the track “Empire Falling”:

David Beck, 'Bloom & Fade'

From his early ventures with country-leaning band Sons of Fathers to more recent Tex-Mex recordings with David Beck’s Tejano Weekend, Beck has continued to broaden his scope as an artist. “Bloom and Fade,” out Sept. 30, features 10 tracks of Americana songcraft centered on his compelling tenor vocals. Beck celebrates the album’s release on Oct. 7 at Sagebrush.

Here’s the track “Red Tail”:

Darden Smith, 'Western Skies: The Essays'

When longtime Austin singer-songwriter Smith released "Western Skies” earlier this year, he promised a fall follow-up that would feature spoken-word renditions of essays from an accompanying book set to subtle instrumentation. Out Sept. 30, “Western Skies — The Essays” will be further supplemented by videos for all 15 tracks, to be released over the course of the fall and winter. Smith welcomes fellow Austin singer-songwriter Kelly Willis to his recurring music-and-discussion series “Who Said You Could Do That?” on Sept. 29 at Stateside at the Paramount.

Here’s the lyric video for “The Bowl of Blue Sky”:

Mayeux & Broussard, 'The Cosmo Oil Co.'

On their first full-length release since 2015 (several singles and an EP surfaced in the years between), Tate Mayeux and Brian Broussard continue to churn out the twangy country-rock that has been their bread and butter for a decade. The 11-song album, out Sept. 30, was produced by John Evans and features Mayeux-penned tunes alongside three covers, most notably Canadian troubadour Corb Lund’s “Roughest Neck Around.” The band is among several local acts playing at Circuit of the Americas during the Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix on Oct. 21.

Here’s the opening track, “Cajun Cool”:

Mobley, 'Cry Havoc!' EP

It’s fitting that the first track on this follow-up to 2021’s acclaimed “Young & Dying in the Occident Supreme” EP is titled “Far Future Retrospective,” because Mobley’s multidimensional art often feels quite futuristic. Musically, he’s frequently pushing the envelope, blending soulful rock, hook-filled synth-pop and other styles into a sound that’s all his own.

Video:Mobley at the Austin360 studio in 2018

The bio for this seven-track, 18-minute set released Sept. 23 explains that its songs were written “from the point of view of Jacob Creedmoor, an ordinary man who becomes radicalized into a Robin Hood-esque figure over the course of the EP.” It’s also apparently a prelude to a science-fiction project coming next year. A release show is set for Nov. 5 at 3Ten.

Here’s the video for the track “Themesong”:

Jonathan Terrell, 'A Couple 2, 3…' EP

Terrell’s journey from hard-rock frontman for Not in the Face to a solo career as a country-leaning troubadour has taken the better part of a decade, but impressive 2020 album “Westward” was a big step. Now he’s taken up sideman residence in the lineup of big-time Austin country band Midland, while also continuing to write and record his own new material. These six new original tunes, issued Sept. 9, further illustrate Terrell’s instincts for quality songwriting that incorporates elements of everything he’s done before. Terrell performs Oct. 1 at Sagebrush.

Here’s the video for the track “Texas”:

Jason & Brit, 'Survival Skills' EP

The five-song debut from keyboardist Jason Garcia and singer Brit Woods, released Sept. 16. may seem like dance-ready synth-pop on the surface. But there’s a lot happening in these lyrics, with songs that address momentous events including the Jan. 6 insurrection and the 2021 Texas winter storm. Garcia, who shares vocals duties on the EP with Woods, has been playing in both original and cover bands around Austin for years, but this is the most fully realized music he’s made to date.

Here’s the title track:

Nakia, 'Unstoppable' EP

The Austin pop singer and local music activist expands on a single issued earlier this year with new versions of the track that feature dance-oriented remixes and stripped-down renditions, released Sept. 23.

Here’s the video for the acoustic version, shot at Austin’s Saxon Pub:

Coming soon

• OCT. 7: Dayglow, “People in Motion”

• OCT. 7: Don Leady, “Road to Enchanted Rock”

• OCT. 7: Michael Paul Lawson, “Love Songs for Loners”

• OCT. 14: Randy Rogers Band, “Homecoming”

• OCT. 21: Joe Ely, “Flatland Lullaby”

• OCT. 21: Twain, “Noon”

• OCTOBER: Gurf Morlix, “Caveman”

• NOV. 18: Melissa Carper, “Ramblin’ Soul”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: New Austin music from the Deer, Charley Crockett, Black Angels, more