It’s no surprise that Spencer Bohren would find an interesting musical way to address the hurricane and its effects. As a student of American roots music, he has repeatedly shown his understand of our genres and what they do. On The Long Black Line, he plugs into the folk tradition—the tradition of telling the stories of working people in song. The title track refers to the waterline, and his heavily reverbed lap steel creates a stately, ominous mood, underscored by a background throb.

 

The album is not all hurricane music, but the air of trying to live in difficult times dominates. Bohren’s knowledge and taste as a guitar player lead to simple, dramatic arrangements, and he knows enough to let spare language be evocative. When he sings Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee,” the stately version draws attention to the chorus, so that the migrant worker and illegal immigrant’s life becomes a series of sad goodbyes. Bohren’s folk and blues feel like art, but art that takes common people—their traditions and expressions—seriously and treats them with dignity.