Pitchfork

In theory, there's nothing wrong with playing the influence game, except that it seems to lend itself to short-sightedness. Is the Strugglers' Randy Bickford really a big Will Oldham fan? Well, maybe, but it's just as likely that they're both Southern folkies with heads full of Skip James, as the venerable bluesman's hovering, cracked voice seems a starting point for both musicians. "The Latest Rights", the title track from the Strugglers forthcoming new LP, is a languid folk-rock tune with the sort of weary, slightly dragging rhythm Levon Helm taps out, lapsing and surging, flickering with piano. Its meanderings are paralleled in the lyrics, where Bickford interprets time as a winding trail where past and future vanish around bends. He has a soft touch with mysterious lyrics, and when he makes "the first long, straight way," and discovers that all he can see is "what [his] latest rights would be," there's plenty of room for interpretative play. The "problem" is stated more clearly earlier on: "I could never get back," goes the refrain, as Bickford treads the trail that only goes one way.

MP3:> The Strugglers: "Latest Rights"
[from Latest Rights; available now as a free download]