A Son

For the eighth Pan American album – and first in six years – Mark Nelson embraces limitations and clarity; if his previous music was layered and blurry, here he’s aiming for direct connection, using only guitar, hammered dulcimer, and voice. In paring his music back, Nelson seems to be gesturing towards several sets of ideas – whether to do with process, such as song craft, or of meaning, with the references to home and homeliness, or of connections back to traditional music, particularly with the closing rendition of “Shenandoah.” The songs borrow from the pacing and structures of country and blues, but they double down on the skeletal core to those genres, and then suspend the resulting, understated melodies in quiet, half-lit spaces.