Dusk “Glass Pastures” 2023. Don Giovanni Records. The Appleton, WI-based alt-country/honky tonk Americana band’s second full-length release. We’re heading up to our hometown of Appleton this weekend for a family thing (which will not involve seeing Dusk or really any honky tonk at all) so it felt like a good time to finally put this on for a spin. I’m pretty sure we bought it in  ’24 up in Green Bay when they performed at the GBUFO Festival, though we’ve seen them a whole slew of times over the past 10ish years, both in the Valley and down here in Milwaukee. (I know I have more photos but this one from 2022 at Cactus Club was the only one I could easily find).

While their style of music isn’t usually in my main wheelhouse I really do like Dusk. With six band members, each of whom are incredibly talented, their live sound is pretty huge, even when the individual songs can be sparse (on Glass Pastures the track “Organized Crime” is a good example of this). The opener of Glass Pastures “Pissing in a Wishing Well” is great – it wins for best title on the LP – and my top track is the rocking, excellently harmonized second song “Changes.” Their theme(?) song “Dusk” is a twang-swaying alt-country rocker and also great. “Don’t Let Them Tell You” has some psych elements mixed with country rock (the song’s intro has a Grateful Dead feel to it). I’m sure we will be seeing Dusk play out again very soon.