The places where you were born and grew up always influence our lives, our choices and for artists also the way to express themselves and propose to the world. Here are the Appalachian Mountains with their immensity, their wild and almost mysterious nature, surely have helped the inspiration and talent of many country artists, a country linked to the roots, to bluegrass, to real life lyrics, of hard life, a lot of work and love for the air, for the forests, for the water. Here you take all this and mix it with the experiences of a young and talented artist who has been playing since she was 7 years old and has come to share the stage with Clint Park, Sunny Sweeney and Josh Morningstar. And you’re gonna get this Brandi Colt debut. A very young girl who only last year started her musical career with the release of two singles that began to turn her name in the independent circuits that in the States function as an essential flywheel to start a career : club concerts, social media and old-fashioned word-of-mouth. The album just released is composed of 9 pieces inspired, fresh and with a taste so sweetly vintage but never old or stale, there is that unpleasant feeling of already felt, copy-paste. Brandi’s influences are very clear, there’s so much bluegrass of her land, there’s the love for Dolly Parton and LeAnn Womack but also the love for independent country icon Cody Jinks and his friend Josh Morningstar and Courtney Patton added to so much talent in their own production. Yes, because it’s right to talk about influences and inspirations, but it should be noted that her beautiful voice sings 7 songs written by her. They are not few and we can already notice a remarkable maturity of writing, helped by the almost perfect production of Andrew Crawford (who is also co-author and plays guitar, banjo and mandolin in all tracks) and the presence of a professional band of the highest level among which I report the magic pedal-steel of Austin Tripp, already in the Tone Deaf Hippies (the band that accompanies Cody Jinks). The work opens up sunny, convincing with Sunny Day Hell, a song that the wonderful voice of Brandi Colt directs towards a classic country ballad, with in the background the splendid work of Crawford’s guitar and the sparkling talent of Tripp and his pedal-steel. The song written for her by Josh Morningstar (along with Jaida Dreyer), List Of Fools, is a melancholy little country jewel of yesteryear in which the sound of Sterling Waite’s violin is the classic icing of a cake already delicious, but that maybe it lacked that country touch that only a good violin played properly can give. Brandi’s voice is pure honey for the ears, one of those voices suitable for any musical season, a truly exceptional gift of Mother Nature that ours has cultivated with an uncommon commitment and talent. The title-track is a dedication to his land, written together with Mark Brinkmann, beautiful interweaving of voice, violin and banjo, anchoring to the roots strong but not forgetting a modern flavor, a piece to listen to sitting under a sunset porch while your eyes are blinded by the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains, you dream is true but close your eyes and just press play and let yourself be lulled by this voice so beautiful and evocative and tell me that the feeling is not that. The sound of banjo, one of my favorite country melodies, is one of the extra marches of the record (along with the voice) and you notice it in the beautiful Love is a Wild Thing, a ballad with a melancholy and intense flavor. Intensity rising in the intro of Made My List, a piece that seems taken from a jam session with Cody Jinks, an exceptional band at the service of a beautiful song, cadenced and exciting, guitar and violin on the shields. Wonderful is the cover of I’m so Lonesome I Could Cry by Hank Williams, that Brandi Colt sings as a duet with Andrew Crawford whose voice is perfect as a counterpoint of her, a classic piece that can not be more classic ( recorded for the first time in 1949 by the legendary Hank). Doing justice to a fantastic song with a really remarkable courage, it is not for everyone in a debut record to bother the Saints and do it convincing and liking at the first stroke. Chapeau! A record that in several passages excites, in many entertains and leaves the conviction that this young woman has just started what will be a remarkable career, a job without fillers, with so much talent that word of mouth will certainly fly as well as its presence in tours of great artists such as Texas Creed Fisher or the fantastic band 49 Winchester. Here in Italy we won’t soon be lucky enough to see one of his concerts but I suggest you to find out if you love those voices that always leave something attached to the soul, a voice with an independent country soul, a voice made even more magical by her Appalachian heart.
Good listening,
Trex Willer by http://www.ticinonotizie.it
(you can find original italian article at this link : https://www.ticinonotizie.it/ascoltati-da-noi-per-voi-by-trex-roads-brandi-colt-appalachian-hearts-2021/ )
