Alrightnik is a fittingly sweeping and adventurous debut from Nashville’s own Josh Halper. It approaches life's misfortunes in a way that's both thoughtful and comic. At times, it recalls Elliott Smith and Modest Mouse, like on "Whale in a Field," an exploration of the depths of melancholy during a long, isolating year after an arrest. But that earnest introspection is buoyed by Halper's sense of humor, which shines on tracks like "Honest Feeling" and album highlight, "Who Knows," a frank and cheeky reflection on recklessness: "Whatever we were doing was despicable," Halper sings, "But it sure was fun." Meanwhile, instrumental cuts like "Reflection" and "Desperation Waltz" draw as much from Halper's classical background as they do from the finger-picked flourishes of Leo Kottke, Bert Jansch and William Tyler.
Ultimately, these myriad musical strains are tied together through a conceptual framework gleaned from the Grateful Dead. The album's title, Alrightnik, is an American-Yiddish slang term for a successful person, but of the nouveau riche kind— a little crass, a little smug. One could maybe read it as a slight reproach on the hordes of people flooding Halper's hometown of Nashville, but it's more a sly, sightly self-deprecating barb for a musician with a penchant for bolo ties and shirts with eye-popping patterns, a guitarist who knows how to wield his instrument for both a laugh and a
cry. Released 12/11/2020 on CD and cassette by Dear Life Records.