Folk narratives, alt-country spirit and ’70s influences create the framework for Blitzen Trapper’s third full-length release on Sub Pop Records. With American Goldwing, Blitzen Trapper have found a way to embody the influence of their musical icons with newly acquired inspiration. The result is a relevant and compelling collection of songs created in the space that bridges past and present.

The album’s pillars are built from frontman Eric Earley’s skilled songwriting ability. The lyrics are artfully crafted as Earley hones a Bob Dylan-esque grace, not only in his knack for storytelling, but at times with an almost haunting vocal flourish. The context Earley creates by weaving stories of dusty small towns, open roads and broken hearts is one of nostalgic warmth, echoing an idealized America of days gone by. These qualities fortify the record’s conceptual consistency from start to finish.

The album’s title is aptly taken from the Honda Goldwing Earley’s father kept behind the house when he was growing up. When he was six, he climbed up on the massive touring bike out of boyhood curiosity. When the bike tipped, it pinned his legs and trapped him, until his mother found him and pulled him out.

Obvious ’70s rock influences aside, there’s no question that this album was born of Blitzen Trapper’s own imagination. While American Goldwing is potentially the beginning of a new direction for the band, they don’t completely veer off the path they’ve created. However, this is a decidedly more grounded offering than their previous album, Destroyer of the Void (which seemed to be created in a galaxy far, far away).

Just as the album seems to marry sentimental reflection and modern direction, so it weds classic country ballads and rock ’n’ roll roots. At times, American Goldwing tenders dipping and sliding cadence, shuffled along by dusty feet and the muddied symphony of harmonicas, tambourines and slide guitars kept warm with banjos and pianos, which unquestionably stir up the nostalgia Earley set out to evoke. At other times, a much less lilting song is presented, with gritty guitar riffs and boot-stomping drums that conjure anthemic barn-burner style dancing and singing.

American Goldwing is not some naive attempt to pay homage to heroes and reflect on the past. Rather, it seems to offer a glimmer of what’s down the road for Blitzen Trapper. And with this, they prove they have the gumption for the ride.

LIZ FIELD

Fast Forward Weekly: You’ve described your last record, Destroyer of the Void, as a patchwork of songs from past and present that hung together like a house of cards. How would you describe American Goldwing?

Eric Earley: With Goldwing, I wrote all of the songs pretty close together, and it felt like a record. It all happened at once. The songs all related to each other at that point in my life. Destroyer was a two-year long record. The songs that ended up on the record were picked out of 25 different songs written at different times. With American Goldwing I was just really deliberate about it. I was just like “These are the songs, this is the record and that’s it.”

There were hints on your previous record that Blitzen Trapper was heading in this direction musically. Do you feel like this is the “real” Blitzen Trapper on your latest record? American Goldwing is an accurate and honest reflection of my influences and what I like to listen to. The subject matter is personal. As far as the future, I don’t know. I’ve always gone in certain directions and Goldwing is the most consistent and concise reflection of that.

Is the nostalgic feel of the record a result of the personal subject matter?

Yeah definitely. I mean, I’m just writing songs that feel familiar. I don’t think about it that much. The songs are simple. The songs are just songs. There’s some folk songs, there’s some country songs and there’s some rock ’n’ roll. That balance just kind of came naturally. It’s what I listen to. It’s what I like. I wrote it all and recorded it in such a short period of time that it just came out that way. And I wasn’t really picky with the recordings. I was just doing takes and being like “yeah that sounds great.” I didn’t sweat over it too much.

Where does this album fit in to the landscape of pop culture?

We’re at a time in America where blue-collar culture has virtually disappeared. And in a lot of ways, this is a blue-collar record. It’s me being nostalgic about where I grew up. The kind of small-town life and small-town feeling I had as a kid growing up in the ’80s in Oregon. To me, it’s not a city record. It’s rural kind of record. It’s nostalgic in a way that makes me feel for things I think we should feel nostalgic for: an age in America where people had real jobs and made real things.

As opposed to now?

Yeah, what do people do now? I don’t know. We don’t make anything, that’s for sure. I spent 15 years doing menial labour working on farms and in factories and in kitchens. I’ve seen that kind of work and seen how things have changed in my dad’s time. He had the same job for 34 years, and that just doesn’t happen anymore. You can’t make a lifestyle out of that kind of work anymore. There’s good and bad things about it, I’m not passing judgment on it. I just think that’s the sort of thing the record is dealing with. And what those sounds are dealing with: the classic rock country, that’s the stuff I grew up hearing while my dad was working on cars in the garage. That’s the stuff you’d hear if you went out to the diner or the bowling alley.

What are audiences that haven’t lived in that type of America and can’t identify with those experiences connecting to on this album?

In the end it’s all human relationships, which is what the strongest songs are always about, regardless of the style of music. And I think in the song “Love the Way You Walk Away,” which is the single off the album that’s been getting the most radio play, that’s really just a simple failed relationship song. It straddles the line between country music and pop music, so in that sense I think it’s wrong to over-think a record like this. Sure, it has vintage retro-y sounds, but in the end it’s just music. Everyone can relate to that.