By Scott McLennan

Turn a Midnight Corner is one of those records that has the right mix of risk and guile. It doesn’t so much tell a story as summon one, track by track.

Turn a Midnight Corner, Mike Mattison & Trash Magic (Landslide Records)

Mike Mattison & Trash Magic’s Turn a Midnight Corner is as much a travelogue as it is an album of primo roots rock.

From song to song, Mattison is a man on the move, sometimes looking for something lost, other times trying to escape from something unpleasant, and occasionally simply feeling freedom in the wind.

Mattison’s dexterous, gritty vocals and his lyrics, full of hip quips and quirky observational details, supply a familiar through line in this album. But Turn a Midnight Corner turns out to be a fresh-sounding project from Mattison, who is best known for his work in the Tedeschi Trucks Band and with the Derek Trucks Band before that.

Trash Magic brings Mattison, who plays acoustic guitar as well as sings, together with guitarist Dave Yoke, who plays with Mattison in the band Scrapomatic, TTB drummer Tyler “The Falcon” Greenwell, guitarist Greg Spradlin, and bassist and keyboard player Wesley Flowers. The band makes its local debut on Febuary 13 at Soundcheck Studios in Pembroke.

Turn a Midnight Corner opens with the full-throated ramble of “Going Down the Alley,” which serves as a wonderful table-setter of what’s to come. It’s a trippy, rootsy jaunt full of surreal invocations (ice-cream-filled veins, hearts pained by a toothache, random encounters with one’s self when rounding the album’s titular corner). The song draws on spooky blues and twangy rock ’n’ roll, musics that will be further reshaped as Mattison moves through the album.

Mattison has said that the songs on Turn a Midnight Corner arose when he was working on a novel about an old-timey blues duo that found itself rediscovered by modern audiences. Perhaps this juggling of different eras in his head contributed to how genre bending and timelessness is stamped into record’s grooves. For whatever reason, the album neither abides by, nor upends, conventions — instead, it rearranges familiar pieces into something new.

“Get It Back” rejoices in the going-mobile motif, as Mattison sings about chasing down lost dreams, lost friends, and lost luck, all of the proceedings set to a sleek ’60s R&B groove modernized with some aggressive guitar licks.

“And I’m Gone” is an upbeat blues full of hustle and bluster, followed by the slower lament of “When I Was Loaded” which feels more like a journey through an interior dreamscape rather than dealing with the sensations of being on the road.

The thematic pendulum keeps swinging back and forth. There’s the hustle of the country shuffle “Traveler” before a step forward into the twangy resignation of “Homesick Lullaby.”

The spirit of Johnny Cash hovers over “Be Like a Train” which has Mattison motoring out of town again, his trials and tribulations left behind.

Mike Mattison & Trash Magic: (L–R): Dave Yoke, guitar; Tyler “The Falcon” Greenwell, drums; Greg Spradlin, guitar; Mike Mattison, vocals/guitar; and Wesley Flowers, bass. Photo: Alix Lambert

The album then embraces a pair of slash-and-burn rockers, “Lookee Here” and “I Can’t Stand It,” the former fueled by bravado, latter juiced up by frustration. Throughout the tracks, and especially here, we are given a fresh perspective on Mattison’s craft. His guitar playing here is markedly different from the way Mattison’s songs are performed by the Tedeschi Trucks Band.

Mattison again offers an interesting song pairing with “Oh, Be Wary,” which has the song’s roamer deciding to take the risk of settling down, and “Sore Losers (Own this Town),” a tune that ponders the risks of hanging around. Mattison and crew create differing textures of country blues in their approaches to these songs.

The album ends with “Waiting for Lola,” whose delicious punchline turns the tables on all the rounders and rascals Mattison has invoked to that point.

Turn a Midnight Corner is one of those records that has the right mix of risk and guile. It doesn’t so much tell a story as summon one, track by track. And that narrative, after repeated listens, changes—shaped by the nuanced details cleverly tucked into each of the tunes.

Scott McLennan covered music for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette from 1993 to 2008. He then contributed music reviews and features to The Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Portland Press Herald, and WGBH, as well as to The Arts Fuse. He also operated the NE Metal blog to provide in-depth coverage of the region’s heavy metal scene.