“Use a Friend,” off Josh Halper’s new Schlemiel, sounds huge, but it’s the size of the space between two people. Sonically, it’s a driving space-rock anthem in the War on Drugs vein. Drum machines and a drum set propel keyboards, guitars and a pedal steel forward at highway speeds. Lyrically, Halper feels stuck in his own brain—which also might be stuck—and wants a friend to help him shake loose and move forward.
“I’ve always found it hard to share / just what’s going on up there,” Halper sings. “Blurred words fumbled through the air / Oh well, it’s no fair.”
As a Nashville session player, the Tennessee-raised Halper’s sideman and lead guitarist credits include Tommy Prine and Lily Hiatt. As a songwriter and recording artist, he deals in jam-friendly arrangements, shambling indie-folk and tasteful space-rock atmospheres. Schlemiel was conceived and recorded in Nashville before Halper moved to New York City. It plays like an album with a foot in two worlds: instrumentalism and songcraft; the last flash of youth and the first settlings of full-on adulthood; Nashville and New York.
