Hymns: Say hallelujah!

Music Row
By Brian Rademaekers

Harrowing and sparse, the twang of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson is unmistakably the sound of the Delta. Gigantic, electrified and rocking, the songs of Howling Wolf are the epitome of Chicago Blues. And — laid back, drifting and dreamy — the Beach Boys’ style defines West Coast surf rock.
Throughout modern pop music, we find particular sounds and styles that are inextricably associated with a sense of place.
Yet today, when we can walk around with a device that is the size of a cigarette pack and contains more than 10,000 songs recorded across time and around the globe, that sense of regionally rooted music has given way to a new era.
No longer confined to the influences in their immediate sphere, musicians filter through dozens of genres and styles before arriving at their own sound.
And so it is with the Hymns.
Anchored by longtime friends and North Carolinians Brian Harding and Jason Roberts, the Hymns peel off a diverse set of songs that represent a kind of stew of American rock and country sounds, not to mention a pinch of Brit rock.
True to their southern Appalachian roots, Harding and Roberts pen songs that often have a lick of easygoing, countrified harmony rolling straight through their core. But that sound is also informed and complemented by a whole generation of rock bands that came before them.
In particular, the Hymns, who now reside in the mega-cultural blender known as New York City, give their rootsy foundations a well-placed shot of 1990s-style rock.
Harding’s nasally vocals carry the cool phrasing of Steven Malkmus and the soft croon of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, giving the songs a sharp edge amid the Hank Williams songwriting and wavering guitar riffs.
And while the Hymns clearly carry the work of other country-rock alchemists on their backs, they have also blazed a new path that heads down a more modern and diverse road.
The title track of their 2006 debut Brother/Sister, for instance, sounds remarkably like T-Rex’s Marc Bolan before Harding breaks into a jerky Pavement-esque refrain. But on a live version of First Time (available free at hymnsband.com), the four-piece takes on the punkish edge of the Violent Femmes. On the newer St. Sebastian, that high-strung, attitude-rich sound is taken a step further, showing that the Hymns have far more to them than a warm Southern alt-rock band. In all songs, the complex, layered nature of the Hymns is teased out by a nearly constant dueling of guitars between Harding and Johnson.
To get closer to understanding the soul that makes up the Hymns, one could imagine Neil Young growing up listening to Nirvana and Velvet Underground and Jerry Lee Lewis. Take all those bands, including Young, whom the bands cite as an influence, shake it all up — and you’re getting close to the kind of sound that the Hymns deliver. It is both familiar and fresh, a homage to the past and a salute to a new day in American music, one increasingly defined by a cross-pollination of eras and genres.
In a way, that has always been a hallmark of American music: a glorious melting pot of traditions blending African rhythms and beats with European instruments and purely American storytelling forms. That mishmash gave the world blues, folk and jazz.
Carrying on that tradition of experimentation, the Hymns offer their fans a cool blend that reaches as far back as the early 20th-century cowboys who put that lingering twang in six-string country and scoops up influences right up to the modern day.
Before the Hymns show Philadelphia what they’ve got at the North Star on Saturday night, fellow New Yorkers the Morning Pages will be taking the stage and showcasing a style far more blatant in its nod to honky-tonk goodness.
Furious piano rags, wounded vocals and rich harmonies grace the songs of the Morning Pages, who played a rollicking set at the Fire two weeks ago. They’ll make the perfect primer for the Hymns during their Philly gig. ••

See them play ...

Who: The Hymns and the Morning Pages
What: Two bands heading down from New York to prove the American musical experiment is far from finished.
Where: The North Star Bar, 27th and Poplar streets.
When: Saturday, June 30, at 9 p.m. Tickets are $8 at the door.