Fervor Coulee Bluegrass Blog

Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms- Gold in Your Pocket review

Donald Teplyske  |  November 22, 2024

Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms- Gold in Your Pocket (Free Dirt Records)

Still members of Foghorn Stringband with Nadine Landry and Sammy Lind, Reeb Willms and Caleb Klauder step out again with a duo album.

Leaving aside the fervor of a string band affords the pair opportunity to explore their troubadour leanings, performing songs both original and acquired.

A contemporary album featuring thirteen songs of solid and true country music of this quality is a rarity. Having performed together for years, Willms and Klauder possess the ability to sing with each other beautifully and naturally, their harmonies meaningfully aching with longing, its absence and its satisfaction.

Paul Burch's "Last of My Kind" is one of the great songs of the past three decades (it comes from the set I named my favourite roots album of 2000-2009), and to hear it here—sung by Reeb with forlorn desperation—is an incredible treat.

Klauder's "Most Lonely Day" should be a song written in the mid-60s, perhaps a Willie Nelson track recorded by Billy Walker or Freddie Hart:

"Yes, tomorrow could be the most lonely day

If perhaps you were to up and walk away

And this house would fall down, I would look like a clown

With a sad face and a tear in the eye."

Rusty Blake's pedal steel contributions on this number capture the pain of potential loss with Klauder plaintively urging us to appreciate what we have. "Gold in Your Pocket" (with terrific fiddle and electric guitar fills) promises a future of support and companionship.

Similarly, Willms' "All About Love" celebrates an interpersonal relationship grounded in music:

"It was late into the night

We were stood inside the firelight

After long hours of drinking

And for a moment we were free

All caught up in the memory

Of our song sung together

'Cause it's all about love..."

Both this number and the heart-stirring "T & J's Lullaby" capture the importance of being part of something—a partnership, a family, a band or a jam, perhaps—and growing together to experience the fullness of life. The fragility of Willms voice on the latter song is astute.

The notes accompanying the album state that Willms was beset with vocal challenges during recording; outside the rawness of "T & J's Lullaby," one hears nothing lacking in her expression or range, whether singing lead or harmony. As for Klauder, he is simply one of the finest singers you'll encounter, each phrase infused with honesty.

His western skies-influenced "Too Far Gone" explores the wandering element of country music, both figuratively and romantically:

"Have you ever gone too far that you can't come back?

Have you ever followed a star and lost your track?

Has the wind ever left your sail,

Has your train ever jumped the rail?

Have you ever gone too far that you can't come back?"

Willms' interpretation of Dean Johnson's "Faraway Skies" takes us into the heart of cowboy culture with gentle western sounds while Klauder's "We've Got It Made" slyly makes promises he can't possibly achieve. Or, can he?

Recorded in both Louisiana and Tennessee, Klauder and Willms are augmented here by co-producers (with Klauder) Joel Savoy (fiddle) and Chris Scruggs (electric and archtop guitars and tick tack bass on "Most Lonely Day") as well as Rusty Blake (pedal steel and electric guitar), Mike Bub (upright bass), Glenn Fields and Walter Hartman (drums), Dirk Powell (piano), and Hailey Pexton (harmony vocals on the title track.) Klauder and Willms both play acoustic guitar with Klauder also handling mandolin.

While the album drips with emotion and intensity, it isn't a maudlin, sappy affair. Rather, it is replete with insight and joy, its themes addressing what is important in life—much like a John Prine album always did. Each track has the potential to 'land' with listeners, depending on individual circumstances.

Sung by Willms, Jack Link's "Sad Songs" is another highlight of the collection; "Gold In Your Pocket" is an album that doesn't disappoint across 47-some minutes of pure country heart.