“I don’t plan a fucking thing,” Cory Branan announced when he took stage for his recent appearance at Jammin’ Java. Cory keeps it loose and raw, in the best way; he came up to play after finishing a cigarette in front of the venue, where he was casually chatting with some folks. But make no mistake: he’s a killer songwriter who combines the literacy and depth of folk with the visceral attack of punk.
Cory doesn’t take himself too seriously. “On my first record,” he said, “I have a song called ‘Jolene,’ because I’m an idiot.” On subsequent albums, he’s had songs called “Imogene,” “Charlene,” and “Kathleen,” because “you can’t teach me nothin’.” (I can relate to that, being a pretty stubborn guy.) “I have a problem,” he said, before starting the set with “Kathleen.”
He kept things going on April 3 with “Blacksburg,” then told a story about his college roommate, a cowboy named Aloysius. (I had a professor named Aloysius who went by AP.) Aloysius took Cory to ride a bull, and he lasted two seconds. Next up was “Angel In The Details.” After that, he explained that, to be his friend, “you gotta be able to not talk to me for 13, 14 months. If you have a low maintenance friend, cherish them.”
Cory played “Charlene,” then “The Pocket of God.” He joked, “I don’t write a lot of autobiographical songs, but that one’s true. I murdered.” He asked, “Haven’t people ever heard of an unreliable narrator” and name-checked Randy Newman.
“Tall Green Grass,” he explained, was influenced by Jeff Buckley, who he saw 11 times in Memphis at a club called Barristers. “You could feel it rearranging your mind in real time,” he said. Buckley, who was a recluse, allowed the grass around his house to grow quite tall, and supposedly he was hide in it when people came to see him.
Watch Cory Branan perform “Tall Green Grass” live for DittyTV on YouTube:
“The next album,” he said, is made up of “the orphans that never made it anywhere.” I didn’t catch the title of the song, of which he said, “It’s not going to be timely. It’s about an old war for oil.” The next tune features Tyler Childers on the record, and is about “a guy at his own funeral.” He shared that his mother thought it would be appropriate to have bagpipes at his grandfather’s, despite them being Irish and the bagpipes a Scottish instrument.
He dedicated “Skateland South” to Ginger McNally, following it with “Prettiest Waitress in Memphis.” He rounded out the set with “Love Song 11,” ‘Yesterday,” Don’t Go,” “Sour Mash,” “When In Rome, When In Memphis,” and “Summer Blue.” “The Corner” was covered by Frank Turner, and “C’mon Shadow” was his attempt to write a Roger Miller song. He finished things off with a cover, Richard Thompson’s “Beeswing,” saying “I can’t play like him,” to which someone responded, “No one can!” and he agreed.
Keeping with the relaxed atmosphere of the show, as soon as he finished, Cory hopped off stage, making his way through the audience to the merch table, where he caught up with fans and signed records. For someone coming to the end of a seven-week stretch of touring that took him all over the country, he was remarkably energetic. He dug into his songs with something like fury, delivering them with a furious growl. It was fun night filled with great songs and some truly hilarious stories.
