Roky Erickson’s spotty career went back to his time with psychedelic-rock pioneers 13th Floor Elevators in the mid ’60s, but he only recorded intermittently afterward. Along the way, he got seriously derailed by some harrowing stays at mental institutions — there were electroshock treatments, the whole works — and schizophrenia, which was left untreated for long periods of time.
True Love Cast Out All Evil, released on April 20, 2010, was Erickson’s first disc in some 14 years – and his final musical statement. It capped a late-career comeback which (on artistic terms, at least) was as remarkable as the rediscovery of long-lost blues singers like Son House and R.L. Burnside.
Using Okkervil River as a backing band and the group’s Will Sheff as a producer, Erickson’s True Love Cast Out All Evil breathed into the ears as a direct extension of the man singing them. Sheff deserves a lot of credit for judiciously using effects, mostly sound collages, to add weight and a mysticism that lifts these songs above the crowded field of roots-rock/folk records.
Roky Erickson’s homey but distinguished voice kept the proceedings grounded. The controlled but passionate pleading on the heartbreaking “Please, Judge” alone testifies to that. Bookended by two crude gospel recordings Erickson made while in one of those institutions, True Love Cast Out All Evil often refers directly or indirectly to his personal experiences. In this way, it details the triumph of the human spirit against nearly impossible odds.
Much as James Taylor did on Sweet Baby James decades ago, Roky Erickson turned his struggles with mental strife into a comely and fascinating document that reached out to listeners, rather than narrating dispassionately. His battered heart and mind emerge through lost years to deliver a forceful record that invites us back to an intriguing career which was too often ofter looked.
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