The first thing to know: Deer Fellow is not an antlered buck rutting its way through the Red River Cultural District in Austin, Texas. Rather, it’s an folk-pop duo that consists of Matt Salois (vocals, electric guitar, looping, percussion) and Alyssa Kelly (vocals, violin, keys), who met in 2015 at an open-mic night and have sung together since. They’ve released singles, an EP—and, last year, got hitched. Hues, due out May 30th, is their full-length debut.
I must confess, however, I knew none of that I first played Hues. I spotted the name Deer Fellow in a review request and clicked through, thinking of James Fenimore Cooper’s famed Leatherstocking Tales book series—and half-expecting a buckskin-clad band barreling through county-flavored rave-ups. Imagine my surpriser when, instead, “Fool for You” floated from the speakers as if from Josh Rouse’s 1972.
It’s a pop-flavored love song, in other words, laconic and lilting, hypnotizing, the sonic equivalent of a stray balloon skirting the sky at dusk, with Salois’s Rouse-like hushed vocals complemented by piano and violin. “Invisible,” which follows, expands upon the palette, with Kelly stepping to the fore to relate an experience many opening acts and bar bands—not to mention introverts—face: “Oh I’m drowning in a crowded room/No one can see me flailing, a slave to the typhoon/Oh I’m screaming in a silent place/No one can hear me howling though I’m red in the face.”
Salois’s “Pep in My Step” is a bit of a misnomer; it’s more jaunty than the songs that precede it, but more a brisk walk that a fast run. The first of three interstitials, “Between Shades (Part 1),” is a gust of harmonies that soon gives way to Kelly’s “Beautiful Gray,” a lush number about navigating love when one isn’t sure if the other feels the same: “Black and white/Ruled my life ‘till I found you/Now I’m living/In this limbo built for two.”
“Shock Value” again conjures Rouse, while sharing a philosophy social-media folks and some politicians embrace: “Everything I do is for shock value/Just to get a rise out of you.” (There’s more to it than that, of course.) Kelly’s “Easier” is a wondrous song about how a life partner can make a difference during life’s storms. “Between Shades (Part 2)” serves as an artful interlude before “Cold-Blooded” slings arrows at those folks who have no conscience, while “So Low” delves into life’s down moments in artful fashion. “Between Shades (Part 3)” sets up the album’s final track, “Hues,” which again reminds me of Rouse, who we’ve seen a time or three through the years. It’s an engaging end to what is an engaging album. Highly recommended.
The Old Grey Cat 