Album Stream: Jack Wilson, Spare Key

“What if I can’t handle it?” That was the question Jack Wilson kept asking himself last year, after two life-changing events — a 2,400-mile move from Seattle to Austin, and a tragic public shooting that left several of his friends dead — shook him to the core. To cope, he found himself touring like crazy, crisscrossing the country all summer long in an effort to outdrive his demons. It was a rough time, and by the end of the tour, Wilson had shed more than 30 pounds. Then, after coming back to Texas and settling in a remote cabin, things started looking up. He gave up drinking and rediscovered his love of Elliot Smith. He started writing new songs.

The result is Spare Key, an album full of plaintive, acoustic folk music and lush Americana. He channels another Wilson — Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson — on the harmony-rich opening track, “Timbertown,” and pushes the title song toward an epic, folk-rock climax with a little help from a choir. Wilson flew back to the Pacific Northwest to record the album.

“In one week,” he told us, “we recorded almost everything that you’ll hear on the record. There were overdubs recorded in Austin, Portland and Seattle, and a couple of songs built from the ground up in Austin with the rest of the live band, but for the most part, the heart of the record, and the feel of the record – the moodiness of it, the minimalist drumming, the organ pedal bass – was all created by Shenandoah Davis, Michael McLeod and I during that week in Portland.”