Nat Myers - Yellow Peril (2023)

"When I bring it up with an Asian person, they immediately know what I'm talking about," says Nat Myers of Yellow Peril, the name of his debut album. "But 99 percent of this country doesn't know what it is. It's a very evocative term, and I liked the idea of putting that concept into a blues song." The scare-mongering term dates back to the 19th century and a "fear" that Asian culture and people would somehow corrupt Western values. Written during what will be remembered as a dark time in history, Yellow Peril stares straight into the injustice—including the AAPI hate embedded in the global Covid-19 pandemic. "Wanna go to college but they saying/ 'You just a little too smart, Charley,'" Myers sings on the title track, echoing admissions controversies sweeping American schools. Led by Myers on dobro, the song is filled out with guitar and mandolin from Pat McLaughlin, Leroy Troy on banjo, and drums and upright bass by producer Dan Auerbach, and there's a feeling of urgency to the jugband-blues hoots and hollers. "Everywhere I been somebody bein' abused/ Never gonna win, some of us are born to lose/ Just wanna have a little fun before we die," Myers cries before the music drops out and he proclaims, "There never ever was no difference 'tween you and I." Raised in Kansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and a longtime fan of hardcore, hip-hop, poetry, and the blues, the Korean American Myers busts the stereotypes of all those identity signifiers. His scene-setting lyrics paint a picture of another time—but also a way of life that still exists on the fringes—on train-hopping tales like "Trixin'" and "75-71." "Well I know an engineer, the L and N/ Go with him to another land/ Knows somewhere we can eat and sleep/ Down south Memphis, Tennessee," he sings on the latter, before continuing: "Let that train satisfy my mind." The song features his fleet dobro work, sounding like it's itching to get somewhere new, and the toe-tapping that pervades the record. (Myers recorded at Auerbach's Nashville abode, lending a homey touch and hardwood floor.) His voice turns scratchy on "Ramble No More" as he pleads to be let into a lover's home and heart, and he breathes through squinting high notes ("Bound to loooose") on "Roscoe," with its twisted little riff à la R.L. Burnside. Love goes from lusty ("I'll cut your wood … gonna make you feel so good," Myers flirts on "Heart Like a Scroll") to sour: "Undertaker Blues"—its dobro keening and background stomp like a military march—pouts, "Baby, what's wrong with you/ You don't suit me like you used to do … I'm gonna call the undertaker." But things end on a jaunty note with "Pray for Rain." It's a romantic, pitching woo song: “I'll put you in mother's locket/ Drag you 'round in my back pocket … I'm gonna build you a garden/ Somewhere to put your heart in/ Then all we gotta do is pray for rain." Consider it aural optimism. "I didn’t really have a consciousness about who I was as a Korean American until very recently. I got very militant about it during the pandemic, and while I’ve chilled out a little since then, I’m all about Yellow Power," Myers has said. "I want this record to raise my folks up.

TRACKLIST

1. 75-71 (3:44)
2. Trixin’ (2:26)
3. Yellow Peril (3:25)
4. Ramble No More (2:55)
5. Duck N’ Dodge (3:36)
6. Roscoe (3:34)
7. Misbehavin’ Mama (2:34)
8. Heart Like A Scroll (2:48)
9. Undertaker Blues (3:41)
10. Pray For Rain (3:14)