The late Joe Tullos was in a trying place when he wrote the songs for what would be his final album, Vessels. After a few years of remission, Tullos discovered last summer that the cancer had returned, and the outlook was grim. Amidst the prospect of painful treatments and therapies and hospital stays, he gracefully decided that he’d fought the good fight but did not go softly into that good night. Instead, Tullos opted to spend what time he had composing a swan song for the ages now to be released on October 1. Tullos died on November 10, 2020.
Aided by his musical brothers in arms from his previous band, Big Sun, as well as friends from New Orleans and North Carolina, Vessels speaks to Tullos’ state of mind during those last few weeks of his life. With Kevin Aucoin on drums, Mark “Byrdawg” Dillon on keyboard, Randy Ellis on guitar, and a host of others, the record appears as a collective celebration of the relationships they’d built with the artist.
Down to the name and cover which reference the chosen final resting place of his remains, Vessels honors “the legend of Joe Tullos” and the man who, to quote Michael Benson, author of the record’s liner notes, “wrote music for Jimmy Buffet, cooked for John Grisham and toured with Carl Perkins.”
From the first to the fading notes of the album, Vessels puts a period on what might have a career spanning a few decades more. Overall, Vessels comes full circle with Steve Himelfarb mixing this, his final release, and his first. The vocals are harrowing, frail even, but sure as they sail through the album’s 11 tracks. Though the record is keenly Joe Tullos, it evades the trappings of any single genre.
While the record may be a farewell, it doesn’t strike as the last notes of a man in mourning. On “Alpha Ray,” Tullos sings, “Funny how the flowers just bloom right on time. ‘Cause I’m doing fine.” Perhaps listeners should take a leaf from his book with Vessels.
Read more about Tullos in this obituary published by OffBeat in November 2020.
To pre-order Vessels and to learn more about the late artist’s discography, visit here.
