Totally Biased Fan Review: Deeper Well – Kacey Musgraves

Tracklist: 
1. Cardinal 
2. Deeper Well 
3. Too Good to be True 
4. Moving Out 
5. Giver / Taker 
6. Sway 
7. Dinner with Friends 
8. Heart of the Woods 
9. Jade Green 
10. The Architect 
11. Lonely Millionaire 
12. Heaven Is 
13. Anime Eyes 
14. Nothing to be Scared Of

After the last couple of albums, I nearly gave up on Kacey. The first few albums were sensational. Fun, clever, quirky, sometimes sweet, tender when she wanted to be.

Then, I lost interest. With the release of this album, I was going to give it a hard pass. I read 10 reviews and none of them were complimentary. Even one critic whom I normally agree with was totally against it.

Then I read a regular reviewer who wrote some compliments amongst the driftwood.

So I listened. Yes, it is different to those first ones, but thankfully t is a good different and nothing like the ones that I didn’t like.

It is softer, more mellow. It is not funny or quirky. It is a different place in her life and the mood fits the place. Heaven is is a beautiful song – it will be hard to beat come awards time.

This album has a whimsical quality to it. It is romantic, bitter sweet, zen like.

Her voice is at its best, gentle and moving. There are some lyrics that are still Kaceyesque, that is, that they tend to push the envelope a bit, but they are a bit more subtly placed than in previous recordings.

I don’t understand the wrath that she has copped, there have been some really hard hitting reviews. Some of them, like me, had it been keen on her last couple but this is so different to them.

I really like it. It is more like Woodstock than Nashville but it is more in the zone than the last two.

Enjoy

Totally Biased Fan Review: Born – Kenny Chesney

He’s back! It has been a while since we have heard from the Beachboy Cowboy who makes the late Jimmy Buffett look like a land lover.

This is his 20th studio album and it is a very generous 15 track effort. It is his best album for along time. Kenny mixes it up with some different styles and rhythms and some incredible phrasing and lyrics.

It is unmistakably country, even though there is more sand in his loafers than there is dirt.

Like Jimmy, Kenny has always known how to balance surf and turf.

Not for one minute do I think that the sailor with the cowboy hat has lost his country vibe. That will always be his jam. Some of his subjects maybe more seafaring than down on the farm but his sound and style will always be country.

His voice has such clarity and there is a definite passion in his delivery. He always sings with such conviction.

Like a good storyteller, Kenny always has conflict in a bunch of his songs and some of those conflicts are resolved, sometimes they try to resolve them other times it doesn’t get sorted. Like real life, I guess.

A lot of the songs are intense and introspective others are just fun. There’s a maturity in this album, however, and Kenny is all growed up!

There are still toe tappers and singalong songs but there are deeper aspects to this album and some more meaningful songs.

Wherever you are tonight is the last song on the album and it is far and away the best song here.

This too shall pass, Come here, go away, The way I love you now, Thinkin’ ‘Bout, Guilty Pleasure, Take her home and the title track are all new classics for Kenny. This is a solid album.

If you loved Kenny at his peak, then you will be cheering from the crows nest about this one. He had me from the title. (See what I did there?)

Totally Biased Fan Review: 1977 – Jamie Lindsay

Tracklist:

01. Jamie Lindsay – 1977
02. Jamie Lindsay – Carry On
03. Jamie Lindsay – Open Road
04. Jamie Lindsay – Bring On The Summertime
05. Jamie Lindsay – This Is Who I Am
06. Jamie Lindsay – My Girls Got A Truck
07. Jamie Lindsay, Chris E Thomas – Bumper 2 Bumper
08. Jamie Lindsay – Here Comes The Weekend
09. Jamie Lindsay – A Lifetime To Forget You
10. Jamie Lindsay – You’re My Everything
11. Jamie Lindsay – Home Free

The first time that I heard Jamie LIVE, they nearly had to replace the ceiling at Tamworth Servies Club. His voice is very powerful and soars way above the tree tops.

What you have on this album is a collection of songs that showcase that voice. There’s an element of Keith Urban there, in style, but there’s something unique about Jamie’s delivery.

While the majority of this album is uptempo, there are some mellow tracks like the previously released Bumper 2 Bumper with Tassie icon, Chris E Thomas.

There’s a bit of the soul man in Jamie – not only in his voice but in the sound of a lot of his songs.

A Lifetime to forget you has some clever lyrics despite the fact that the premise of the song is simple. It is more of an 80’s power ballad.

This album feels more like a summer album rather than an autumn one. With you’re my everything, it feels like a gentle strummer while sitting on the beach at sunset or sunrise.

While Jamie mixes it up between soul, blues, country rock and even like a choral feel in the last song, there’s a theme and a formula to the album.

I love it when the title track is the first song on an album. Call me old fashioned, but that’s where it belongs. It sets the scene and launches the album and the stories perfectly.

The album is about writing and singing about what you know- some of it is based on simple, everyday stuff but there’s a touch of deeper territory as well.

The autobiographical side is most obvious in This is Who I am. I think that the influences that he mentions in the song are very evident in his musical styles.

With a sprinkling of the banjo, strong drum beats, twangy guitars which turn into rock guitars and an almost gospel choir here and there, it is certainly a mix.

This album would be best heard very loudly on an open road with the windows wound down. The big sky may be endanger of cracking slightly!

Bravo!