Jason Molina: A night spirit and his day's work

2024-01-18 18:22:27

Jason Molina

„The whole place is darkMolina sang in the opener Farewell Transmission. The darkness, one of the most common language images in his creative work, draws – tragically it also stems from his life lost in shadows. Don’t this look like the dark; at least the dark don’t hide it; I’ve lived so long with the shadows, lord I became one of them – it says in his Americana songs.

Molina was a musician who felt the music deeply and whose honest lyrics were accepted. Molina was one of the musicians who unfortunately died early from alcohol-related organ failure.

Jason Andrew Molina was born in Lorain, Ohio. In his early days he played bass in heavy metal bands, so it’s no surprise that two dark Black Sabbath covers would posthumously see the light of day in album form – but his true calling was songwriting.

Songwriting as a day’s work from morning to night

At a very young age, according to his father, Molina read encyclopedias from A to Z, learned four languages, and got up early to make the most of the day. In later years, it was songwriting that Molina pursued from dawn to dusk. 17 studio albums were counted across projects – from the “Songs: Ohia” and “Magnolia Electric Co.” projects and also solo albums.

The fact that Jason Molina believed in magic, ghosts and supernatural phenomena at a young age was later reflected in his original metaphors, the blue moons and ghosts, which he conjured up in his songs. „here comes midnight with the dead moon in its jaws“he sings Farewell Transmission, vom Album Magnolia Electric Co. (2003).

His first album, the self-titled Songs: Ohia, was released in 1997 on the “Palace” label of the musician Will Oldham, also known as Bonnie Prince Billy.

The unique thing about Molina songwriting

On his sparsely orchestrated first albums, two or three dreary chords and his voice were often enough to completely draw the listener into the dark expanse of his sound world. The moments in which the music almost dies down before it resumes its wave-like momentum of a dark ocean on a full moon night are what make it so attractive.

The eternal emptiness, the spaciousness – it made Molina’s music unique. He let the emptiness he felt inside express itself in his music. He composed, he created and sculpted his songs, but always gave them space and space. Where other artists might have filled this space, Molina let it work and stretch it, ad infinitum.

The Lioness:

One of the examples of this sound is the song Lioness of the album of the same name with its trademark original metaphors, it is particularly wave-like. I will swim to you sings Molina to match the sound.

Didn’t it Rain:

The album “Didn’t it Rain” was produced by star producer Steve Albini (In Utero, Surfer Rosa, Shellac etc.). It is arguably Molina’s first masterpiece. The cutting song Blue Chicago Moon is a kind of answer song to Neil Youngs Helpless, „you are not helpless I’ll help you try try to beat it.“, sings Molina. Chicago, that’s where he spent his life. When he wasn’t on tour.

The Magnolia Electric Co.:

The following, next masterpiece “Magnolia Electric Co”. Album marks the turning point in his work, the expansion of his sound into a full Crazy Horse-like band and country rock. Molina liked the name of the album so much that he made it the new band name. In the studio, his drinking never got in the way of working on the albums, said legendary producer Steve Albini – Molina went to work sober. On tour, however, the tragic drinking addiction began. So much so that bandmates had to intervene. I’ve been Riding with the Ghost is probably the most apt song about dependency and change that Molina is trying to make.

Hold on Magnolia live:

During live performances he always varied the vocal melodies a lot, howling sometimes lower, sometimes higher, swelling and drawn out and moving his head with abandon and emotion like Hank Williams once did while he sang his magnolia-colored melodies. Molina would outlive Hank Williams by a decade.

Live in Wien:

Molina was a guest in Vienna in 2007 with A Life, a Song, a Cigarette in the opening act, as well as in 2009. At live shows he plays 75 to 90 percent new material, he is not a musician who plays to his older, already published albums and songs often returns to hear them or incorporate them into the set list in large numbers on tour, he said in an interview about the album “Josephine”. In March 2017, a magnolia-magical Jason Molina Tribute took place at Fluc, with bands like The Ghost and the Machine and Destroyed but not Defeated, Protestant Work Ethic and Los Compadres, among others.

Similarities of Just be Simple and the music of Richard and Linda Thompson:

In the outro of the Molina song Just be Simple you can hear characteristics of the formative folk-rock album “I Want to see the Bright Lights Tonight” by Richard and Linda Thompson. You can also hear a possible influence in the special, drawn-out vocal melodies and the backing vocals.

The Calvary Cross – Richard and Linda Thompson:

Just be Simple:

The Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine (2009):

Coinciding with the name change and the final Songs:Ohia album, Molina expanded his solo musician sound to that of a full Americana band. The culmination of Magnolia Electric Co.’s work is the album Josephine: A Noble Work, which Molina released in 2009. Emotional, magnolia-colored Molina melodies. The piano tones dance like diamonds on the chords. In the new band project Magnolia Electric Co. with more musicians, the same expansiveness in songwriting and melodies remains. The musicians in Molina’s band fill the space between the lines with their noble performances; Molina often gave them artistic freedom to interpret their own interpretations with confidence.