There are artists who have truly incredible stories and who deserve to be told, like their records. And these stories can be really inspiring, fights against the adversity of life, always looking them in the face and hoping for the best. This is not a country record, as I usually find in my stories, but it was a must to listen to and tell it. In 2019 Drake White was one of the brightest new voices in the American music scene, an artist from a small village in Alabama, Hokes Bluff, who with admirable skill had built, with his debut Spark of 2016, a sound that was halfway between country and soul coming from Muscle Shoals (not far from his home that is the birthplace of soul sound). After years of hard work, after opening, together with his band Big Fire, the concerts of sacred monsters like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Eric Church, he was finally reaping the deserved fruits of hard work and innate talent. Fate is sometimes cruel, we know it well and just 3 years ago White was hit by a stroke, during a performance, and he seriously risked leaving this world. He was saved but probably the hopes of seeing him again on stage, at that time, were less than a little faded light. After 6 brain surgeries, months and months of physiotherapy, interspersed with a pandemic, Drake White not only returned to being a musician, but he came back with a brand new record and a tour that in the States, He’s already seen him perform with the Whiskey Myers. The title of the album is a summary of how the human Drake White, now sees the world and life, an optimism that has been harshly tested by the facts and has come out winner. The work is long, sunny and is a kind of soul music soaked in the country feeling. 14 pieces, of which 12 co-written by him, in which you always have the impression of being faced with an artistic rebirth. The album opens with the dusty 50 Years Too Late, a beautiful country song with a vaguely honky tonk flavor, in which White openly declares himself out of place in this modern world, while the guitars lash the desert air. Very beautiful. The feeling hovering at work, is very clear in the soul music of Rainbow State of Mind, light and sunny but with a really beautiful text. Drake tells us to always look on the bright side even when it seems not to be there and to let go, let fate or for those who believe, God, take control and guide us to the “pot of gold” beyond the rainbow. The beautiful voice of Drake White, who in live is even more sparkling, stands out in Giants, but it is still his words that make the difference. A very current song, a piece that tells us to have confidence in ourselves, to be calm because we all have the strength to overcome all that we would like to hold back, that although we feel like David against Goliath, sometimes with our backs to the wall, Goliath must fear that dogs will turn into lions. Very inspired. Hurts the Healing is a photograph of the moment experienced by White and the song is sunny and reflects the positive feeling related to the story behind the record. The most heartfelt dedication is in the intense ballad, Power of a Woman, a dedication to the women of his life, to his mother and his wife Alex, who have always been close to him but in the end is a dedication to such a determining figure in the life of every man. The acoustic guitar introduces Legends Never Die, in which it pays homage, with a delicate and soul-filled song, to an old mentor whom it would like to resemble because in the end the legends never die. The fun and well-played country rock of Can’t Have My Dog, gives a bit of movement and irony to the record and shows us how the versatile voice of Drake White can adapt to any rhythm and type of music. In the title track, intense and exciting, White desperately asks to have the world back before, the one before we knew about this bad world, before the short but intense Amazing Grace closes the album, sung by the ecclesial community of his grandfather, with her father and grandmother leading the choir. A timeless song and always pleasant to hear. An excellent return on stage for an artist who had missed, given the premises of his debut, the American music world and is ready to start again, finally looking at the future with this The Optimistyc, a record that contains everything that brings us in the title. Let yourself be lulled by a beautiful voice and the soul country music that accompanies it, on a journey towards the end of the rainbow, who knows that you will also find the pot of gold.
Good listening,
Trex Willer by http://www.ticinonotizie.it
(you can find original italian article at this link : https://www.ticinonotizie.it/drake-white-the-optimystic-2022-by-trex-roads/ )
