It's not so much a case of where you're from OR where you're at for JAMES APOLLO. More of a case of where you're going from one day to the next, really, as his two fine previous albums, 'Sweet Unknown' and - especially - 2005's 'Good Grief' showcased the work of a hugely talented, nomadic individual who pretty much epitomised the notion of the rootless troubadour spinning his tales of magic and impending doom while criss-crossing the USA on a seemingly never-ending tour.
There's some truth behind the romance, of course, because this Libertyville, Arkansas native first cut his teeth on the rock'n'roll circuit at the tender age of 16 and learnt the hard way, having spent nights everywhere from abandonded drain pipes in the Mojave through to New Orleans jail houses along the way. The experience has rubbed off, though, and he continues to hone his fascinating, Americana-tinged muse during the course of the marvellously haunted songs peopling 'Hide Your Heart Like A Hive.'
This time around, Apollo positively encouraged the chaotic contributions of both his regular bandmates (currently drummer Kevin Hunt, pianist/organist Clifton Hyde and bassist Mike Savino) plus a further ragged army of talented friends to breathe fire(water) into his songs of lonely, looming beauty. However, while sessions featured bizarre scenarios like one of his musicians playing a marching drum while a friend poured whiskey into him, clarity and brilliance has emerged from the arcane as 'Hide Your Heart..' is perhaps James Apollo's very best yet.
Indeed, it's a brave man who has the confidence to open his record with a wracked epic like 'When All Pilgrims Come', complete with lure-of-oblivion lyrics like "I'll bring an axe and a spade and a winding sheet/ when my grave I have made, let the cold winds beat/and down I lie as cold as clay" and an atmosphere somewhere between the Violent Femmes and Mark Lanegan at his most sinister. But then, Apollo can rest assured that he has plenty more of devastating quality in reserve as he ploughs into the eerie, upright piano melodies and fatslistic twists of 'Better To Be Born Lucky' ("it's better to be born lucky or not be born at all") which makes like a country Velvets if ever there was.
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Further goodies stumble out in a drunken, but determined fashion. If the idea of Apollo having a radio hit might sound unlikely, then you should move directly to the sneaky, Chris Isaak-style shuffle of the sleazily brilliant 'I've Got It Easy', replete with warm Hammond organ and a distinct Tex-Mex lilt. It's great and by some way the most immediate thing here, though the lonely desert lurch of the ensuing 'Beauty Bird' and the jazzy, afterhours creep of 'Don't Hurt Yourself Baby' both slide along in its' wake and by the time you've caught Apollo's mighty smoky vocal and Hyde's steel wafting by like a distant freight train on the latter you know this is turning into a great album.
And so it transpires, with the record's first half winding down with the broken down rockabilly and hammer horror organ salute of 'Bad Old Buzzard' and the second half opening with the gospel-tinged hobo blues of the gloriously sparse 'Wicked Was The Way'. The remainder of the second side refuses to disappoint too, with the dramatic, piano-based ebbs and swells of 'Fate' ("you call it home, I call it a wide space in the road") and the prowling mid-west meets Eastern Europe allure of 'Golden When It's Gone' all sounding like highlights before the record winds down
Yes, it's true that James Apollo's enigmatic muse does often recall the blasted backwoods mid-western landscapes normally more redolent of the prose of John Steinbeck or Cormac McCarthy, but ultimately his songs take you to places that are dark and vivid purely on their own terms. 'Hide Your Heart Like a Hive' stings and swoons and provides incontrovertible proof that James Apollo is an enduring talent in our midst.
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