Leah Blevins is Getting Me Through It
As fellow parents of kids who are school age know, winter is the bad place. I.e., the time of year when everyone is sick all of the time, despite vaccinations (still get them anyway though! Don't be swayed by men in jeans cold plunging into raw milk or whatever!). I currently have one kid down with the flu, so writing all the things that need to be written is challenging, to say the least. I feel like I am losing my mind a little, and a mind is a terrible thing to lose. Did I just inadvertently quote Dan Quayle? Send help (and don't judge if this post has typos).
At least there's good music, and right now Leah Blevins is getting me through. These past few nights, when the kids are finally in bed and the house is quiet, I have been retreating to my office to write - but before I can transition back to "writing person" from "mom person" I need to calm my brain, which I have been doing in the form of Leah Blevins' "Lonely." A short and simple honky-tonk weeper, it's the kind of song that helps me connect with country music in its most basic and, quite often, most perfect form. Blevins, a Kentucky native who now lives in Nashville, just has that kind of voice to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up straight, and they way she blends that high-pitched-in-the-holler sound with a a 70s groove or subtle shuffle makes songs like these stand out amongst the trad-country revivalists; these are fresh, not just throwback. And lord, does she know when to let the steel guitar do the weeping.
Equally perfect is "All Dressed Up," also the name of her forthcoming album due March 20th on Easy Eye Sound, a tune that somehow conjures a bit of "Islands in the Stream" but, like, make it cool? Dan Auerbach produced the album, and it definitely carries some of the spirit of his excellent 2017 record Waiting On a Song (if you somehow missed that one, I highly recommend it, truly the sound of a man having a good time with music alongside some of the best players in town). Blevins also covered Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You" on her debut record, which gets instant points for me - that song is one of the biggest inspirations for so many Americana artists these days, even if they don't realize it, and she pulls off a beautiful cover.
I also love the way the chorus opens up in "Be Careful Throwing Stones," which makes me feel like I am in a Nashville version of Boogie Nights, or the touch of California in "Diggin' In the Coal" (even when she ventures, Blevins' voice keeps everything centered thoroughly on country). Somehow Blevins constructs songs that lift you that effortlessly out of reality, shrouded in lyrics that keep you fully in the ground. That's no easy feat.
All Dressed Up is out March 20th via Easy Eye Sound.
