Lost Empires, Found Memories:
Joel R. L. Phelps and the Downer Trio Cover the Globe
By Dave Liljengren

[11/1/2000] - Imagine a song about life, death, grief and acceptance which is so affecting that it reduces audiences to tears. Imagine that this same song is so deftly performed that with mere acoustic guitar and vocals it summons a flicker of transcendence in all who hear it, illuminating their inner chambers of fear and denial such that they will never think about death in the same way again. While this description may strain credulity, a song like this does exist "Now You Are Found (1962-1999)," the tune anchoring, Inland Empires, (Moneyshot Records) the new release from Joel R. L. Phelps and the Downer Trio, is exactly that. And more.

Written over several months, "Now You Are Found" is Phelps' sonic memoir of his sister, Charissa Ann, who brought an end to her turbulent life on December 1, 1999 with a lethal injection of heroin. "She'd been a junkie for years, she knew how much was too much," Phelps says. She also left a note declaring her intentions.

Replete with both playful childhood memories and references to the difficult later years when Charissa's drug habit and ongoing legal problems took her in and out of mental wards and correctional institutions, "Now You Are Found," is a bleak testament to both the power of familial bonds to endure in the face of adversity, and to the limits of those bonds. We never really know the people to whom we are closest, the song seems to imply, and we never stop caring even when there's nothing we can do to stop the self-destruction.

"Now You Are Found" is the only Phelps original on a record otherwise filled with cover tunes. Because of the highly personal and emotionally purgative nature of the song, Phelps wanted it to stand out. "I didn't want it to be just another song on a record," he says.

Instead, the tune stands as the centerpiece of Inland Empires and is the tune from which the EP gets its name. Included also are two songs by Iris Dement, one each from Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt, a Fleetwood Mac song and a Go-Betweens song. When all seven songs are heard in order, a theme of grieving and acceptance emerges.

Phelps is not so sure. "It's funny, I don't know how I feel about it yet," he says.

Even though Phelps may not have made up his mind about the record, seemingly everyone who gets their hands on an advance copy has tried to outdo the others with acclamatory huzzahs. John Kappes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, an old bandmate of Phelps in the Missoula band, Einheit, pronounced it "bracing" and "great stuff." Matador Records Co-President, Gerard Cosloy, was so taken with the disc that-- after failing to convince the other Matador Co-President, Chris Lombardi, that Matador should handle the European release of the disc-- started a new label in England, 12XU, expressly for the purpose of releasing Inland Empires in Europe. There is talk of 12XU (the name is taken from a Wire song) expanding to the United States and of Cosloy handling future domestic releases of Phelps' material.

While the cover tunes on Inland Empires may lack the heart-wrenching power of "Now You Are Found," they nonetheless make for good listening. Townes Van Zandt's "My Mother the Mountain" gets a jolt of free-form drum and bass from the Downer Trio's Bill Herzog and Robert Mercer. Phelps' sotto voce wail adds intangible gravity to The Go-Betweens' "Apology Accepted," and Iris Dement's "Calling For You," posseses a disarming fragility when recast with Phelps' mournfully earnest vocals.

As for the immediate future, Phelps will continue to play shows in the Northwest. In the short run, appearances by the Downer Trio may be limited. Herzog is on the road, playing bass with Neko Case and Her Boyfriends, and, as of press time, Robert Mercer and his wife, Sheila, are expecting their first child. "I'd like to keep playing, at least some more," Phelps says. And with or without the Downer Trio, any appearance by Joel Phelps is an event not to be missed.