This week features several four star efforts.
Ron Mitchell
Dead On Country
Accurate. The songwriting is a bit dodgy at times, but Mitchell’s singing (and recitation!) and the trad-country arrangements always hit. Sure to be catnip for genre purists, and there’s always a place for this kind of timeless/ out-of-time record.
Kasey Tyndall
Kasey Tyndall
Long-time-in-coming label debut lives up to expectations: Tyndall’s a great storyteller as both a songwriter and a performer. The harder rock arrangements suit her quite well and match the rough edges of her narratives and her powerful voice. She remains one to watch.
The Wiggles
Wiggle Up, Giddy Up! With Friends
More charming / less grating than it has any real right to be, and a quality genre primer for the young’uns. The OG line-up’s origins as working musicians carries through on the actual craft, and their collaborators (Dolly! Orville! Slim Dusty!!!) are all game.
Angel White
GHOST OF THE WEST: THE ALBUM
Aims high conceptually, but the songwriting doesn’t meet the lofty ambitions consistently on this very long record. When it does, though, it positions White as an essential voice in the country space. Just a little better quality control, and look the whole way out.
Sierra Hull
A Tip Toe High Wire
She’s always been great, but this may be the first of her albums– and how is this only her fifth album?– on which her performances sound like she knows exactly how great she is. Truly, her best singing and picking to date, and with songs worthy of her skills. Essential.
Cristina Vane
Hear My Call
I dig the overall vibe of this record more than the songwriting, which is too pedestrian too often. But Vane’s slide guitar? Hot damn, y’all. And there’s something in her vocal timbre that reminds, no lie, of Dolores O’Riordan. Which is to say: A lot to like here.
Charley Crockett
Lonesome Drifter
Will always root for his success, but, having been so consistently good for so long, the nosedive in quality here is a shock. Jennings has no idea how to record him in a way that plays to his strengths, the songwriting’s wildly uneven, and the vox are rough.
The cover of “Amarillo By Morning” is an absolute horror, and there are only a handful of tracks here on which his charm and presence on record can overcome some serious shortcomings. A major disappointment that could’ve been his overdue star turn.
Zach Top feat. Billy Strings
Me & Billy [EP]
This too-brief collab with Strings brings out the very best in Top and is an even better showcase for what he can do than was his (strong!) 2024 record. The songs from that set covered here are superior in these versions, and live up to Top’s growing hype and rep.
Haley Mae Campbell
Dear Life
A pleasant enough listen, but rarely more. Everything about the record has an obvious forebear on either Fearless or Speak Now. Campbell’s a better singer than early Swift by some margin, but the writing here is less distinctive. She’s one to watch, though.
Haven’t heard most of the Charley Crockett album. I actually didn’t hate the cover of ”Amarillo By Morning,” but his 2017 recording of ”Jamestown Ferry” was far superior to the one here.