NEIL YOUNG IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME

“We’re definitely getting a different audience for The Heavy Lidders,” Jeffrey Alexander notes of his most high-profile outfit, after 30 years of improvised head music with the likes of the ongoing, free-ranging Dire Wolves, as well as sideman duties with Jackie-O Motherfucker. “People like songs. They want a vocal to latch onto.”

Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders’ self-titled 2021 debut landed during lockdown with folky, hazily drifting tunes led by Alexander’s gently questing voice and guitar. Covid contributed to its genesis, as the geographically scattered Dire Wolves were kept apart, and Alexander sought players near his Philadelphia home. Deeper life-changes also inspired the shift to songcraft. “It was around the time that my kids were becoming real, talking little people, and I was being more engaged as a poppa,” he says. “A lot of Lidders songs are about my kids. I had them at 50, and I’m doin’ my best!”

The new Lidders album, New Earth Seed, is produced by Chris Forsyth with simpatico guests including Animal Collective’s Geologist, Modern Nature’s Jeff Tobias and Movietone’s Kate Wright. It ranges from the sweet 86-second “Departure” to three successive 11-minute jams, the electric guitars crunching harder as Alexander’s freak flag irresistibly unfurls. “The first album is almost entirely songs,” he considers. “This time we did extended jamming, which I turned into songs later. It depends on the vibe.” Alexander considers the appeal of going far out. “The best results occur when I’m closing my eyes and fully listening, and not paying attention to what I’m playing. Trying to get to that unexpected place is the spiritual aspect for me. I really try to get out of my head.”

Alexander grew up in Baltimore in the ’70s, where his mum was church organist and choir director at his preacher dad’s church, and music was always around. His tastes were voracious, from Barry Manilow to Hot Tuna. “I never had a lesson, I’m not a musician – I was a huge fan,” he says. “I loved it all. In the ’70s and ’80s, delivering newspapers to buy 8-tracks, I was totally into radio pop.” In high school, SST Records’ DIY punk took precedence: “I saw Dinosaur as much as I could up and down the East Coast.” He was simultaneously an ’80s Deadhead. “I dropped out of school for a while, I was living on the road for years. I miss that feeling of going from town to town.”

The enduring Garcia/Hunter influence on Alexander’s ethos is confirmed by The Heavy Lidders’ compelling 36-minute take on “Dark Star” from June’s Spacious Minds EP. “It was multi-tracked live at a backyard party,” Alexander explains, “with sections that really went off the rails. I don’t think that’ll ever happen again.”

An uncompromising new Dire Wolves album, Easy Portals, is also out now. “This was a pretty good year, I had five or six records out,” Alexander notes. “When I put out solo records, I’m tinkering with weirder sounds on the four-track in my basement, it’s maybe synth-pop but strange. Dire Wolves need to be in a room looking and listening to each other, it’s a group experiment. Then with The Heavy Lidders, it’s rural rock songs. My friend Keith called it ‘ringwear rock’, thinking about rusty old records! But it’s still all me. I’m still playing the same. And I’m not going to stop.”

New Earth Seed is out now on Arrowhawk; Jeffrey Alexander’s solo album Reyes is also available now via Ramble Records