Willi Carlisle

• Peculiar, Missouri [Free Dirt, 2022] A−
• Winged Victory [Signature Sounds, 2025] A−

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Peculiar, Missouri [Free Dirt, 2022]
Covering Utah Phillips and Almeda Riddle, citing J.D. Salinger and E.E. Cummings, Midwestern folkie who's proud of both labels applies his wavery tenor to "people who don't fit in." "Meritocracy's a lie," as he noted on 2016's Too Nice to Mean Much, so in this world where "somebody's true religion's always someone else's joke" you'll find detailed descriptions of living in your van and a breakout party in the Wal-Mart that serves the Kansas City suburb of his title. Pay special attention to "Life on the Fence," composed while driving to Austin and trying to figure how to explain to the woman he thought would make him "shiny and new" that he seems to have fallen in love with this guy he hooked up with in Memphis. A−

Winged Victory [Signature Sounds, 2025]
Kansas-born, Arkansas-based Carlisle is the most idiosyncratic folkie protest singer to noodge my recall memory in years. "We Have Fed You All for 1000 Years" he begins before citing the bad TV, frozen food, and conservative neighbors besetting "a house we can't afford" and moving on to the unheard-of stuff best summed up by a lissome mid-LP waltz disconcertingly titled "Cryin' These Cocksucking Tears," which at the very least prepares us for "Big Butt Billy," which in turn I betcha is the first folk song if perhaps not talking blues ever to use the word "nonbinary." So right, sexuality is on the table here—almost as much as poverty is. A−