We take on new singles from Grey DeLisle and MaRynn Taylor today.
“Sister Shook”
Grey DeLisle
Written by Grey DeLisle
Jonathan Keefe: The highest compliment that I can pay to “Sister Shook” is that it more than holds up in direct comparison to Tami Neilson’s incendiary cover of Willie Nelson’s “Sister’s Comin’ Home.” DeLisle’s narrator, much like Neilson’s, is clearly working through some shit on this record. The way DeLisle snarls and yelps, “Sister Shook gonna shake the Devil outta you / Spit him out!” with such menace fills in a whole lot of the blanks in the relatively sparse lyrics here.
Wanda Jackson’s influence is all over this, which is obviously a glorious thing, but there’s also a whole lot of X and Detroit Cobras, and DeLisle impresses here as a cowpunk frontwoman of real power and grit. At barely two minutes, her “Sister Shook” is a suckerpunch of a single, and its energy is very much on my 2025 vibe.
And, Lord help me, I never would’ve guessed that the voice actor behind the last twenty-plus years’ worth of Scooby-Doo’s Daphne Blake– great as she may have been as vocalist for The Hex Girls– had this in her. A
Kevin John Coyne: Yes, to invoke the name Tami Neilson and then not fully pale in comparison is a worthy feat on DeLisle’s part, enough to have made this record notable even if it wasn’t such a fierce and original effort in its own right.
Karma’s coming and DeLisle’s popping corn, eager to watch some long overdue vengeance play out. That we don’t know the when, where, or why makes it that much more compelling. Not gonna lie. I’m a little shook. A
“same girl same”
MaRynn Taylor
Written by Josh Kerr, Jason Saenz, and MaRynn Taylor
KJC: When I first became a fan of country music, I struggled a bit with listening to the artists who emerged before the new traditionalist movement. I couldn’t really appreciate efforts from the likes of Barbara Mandrell and Sylvia because the production sounded so garish to me.
I’ve warmed to those records since then, but I’m reminded of the same general sensation when I listen to MaRynn Taylor’s “same girl same.” I hear a lot of promise in the songwriting and I think there’s a good vocal buried here.
But good Lord, is it buried, with too many layers of synthetic instrumentation and possibly unnecessary vocal correction tricks.
I think that’s the main difference right now between what works and what doesn’t: whether or not the producer trusts the artist enough to let them sing. B-
JK: I recognize her name from the slew of one-off singles she’s released over the last five years, but damned if I could tell you if I’ve ever actually listened to any of them. And if you were to ask me that again a year from now, I’m confident I’d say the same thing then.
This is just boilerplate stuff. The half-rapped verses that lead to a flatly sung chorus with a three-note melody, all set to a why-even-bother-calling-it-country pop arrangement with fake drums that are mixed far too forward. It sounds like a Morgan Wallen track, in other words. Which is the point, really. There might be the germ of a good song here with that title, but there’s not a single line or image here that’s in any way original, so why does it even matter that there might have been something here that more talented people could’ve worked with.
Does Taylor have a good voice? I have no idea based on this. She isn’t noticeably off-pitch in spite of the obvious use of ProTools, so she clears the Megan Moroney bar for baseline technical competence. Will this be a hit? I kind of don’t care. Unless it turns out Taylor is one of those AI-generated “artists,” there isn’t even anything here worth being mad about. D
I follow Grey on IG and her music is a wonderful blend of country/Americana/rockabilly, with a dash of punk thrown in here and there for good measure (she also does fun children’s music!). She’s an immense talent.