Kevin Gordon was working on a new album after the success of 2018’s Tilt and Shine when he received the bad news. He had throat cancer. The singer-songwriter had already completed the instrumental tracks for guitars, drums, and bass, as well as the vocals for two of the songs, but he had to suspend work while he was treated with radiation and chemotherapy. The good news is that Gordon’s cancer is in remission. He’s singing and playing again and has completed the record called The In Between.
Gordon’s voice sounds as strong as ever. Then again, Gordon has never had the most robust voice as much as an expressive one. He often sang with a growl and a drawl that seemed rooted in his Southern background—and still does. Although the Louisiana native, now Tennessean, spent a few years in the Midwest earning his MFA in Poetry at the well-regarded Iowa Writers Workshop, he never sounded like a man from the heartland. His vowels betrayed his roots: long “I”s became “ahhs”; “a”s “ay-uhs” and short “e”s sounded like short “I”s.
When Kevin Gordon sings about people like “Tammy Cecile” and “Marion”, the characters explode with the kind of gothic eccentricities that befit the region by not fitting in like Flannery O’Connor’s misfits. The singer’s accent accentuates the action with a lilting assonance. The wildness and tragedy of the protagonists’ lives seem like just part of everyday life in the Loserville of the American South. What else would one expect of those living outside proscribed behavior in a conformist conservative locale? These story songs could only take place in those environs despite the universality of their concerns—being a woman too wild for one’s peers, being gay in a traditional community.
The songwriter is the most profound when paring situations down to basics. On “Simple Things”, Gordon sings that “Normal’s never gonna be the same” when discussing life after the COVID epidemic, but a line like that could equally apply to his personal situation about recovering from ill health and for anyone of us who has experienced trauma. On the title tune, he notes that we are all “living in the in-between” no matter what age we are. “Destiny” tells the tale of what happens when we think we control our fate. And so it goes.
Musically, the ten tracks move to conventional melodies. There are few instrumental surprises. Gordon plays lead guitar and is backed by Joe V. McMahan on guitar and vocals on all cuts and assorted players on bass, drums, and harmony vocals. Nashville’s Fats Kaplin notably contributes on fiddle and steel guitar on half of the tracks. He adds a country flavor to the more rocking and even folkie-type material (depending on the song).
The In Between ends with the one co-write on the record. Kim Richey joins Gordon on “You Can’t Hurt Me No More”, whose title suggests the Faulkneresque lesson of enduring and prevailing against what brings one down. The lyrics are meant ironically. The narrator still feels the pain of love lost but is determined to rise above it. There is something spiritually noble about the effort. Kevin Gordon’s new release provides evidence for the grandeur of keeping on even when everything seems wrong.