The set walks a fine line with its retro-fetishism, but it manages to dodge hokey-ness thanks to Wall’s great voice, a low-key delivery, and invitingly haunted backdrops.
She remains hard to categorize, refracting country alongside rock, folk and other elements befitting a longtime resident of New York City’s melting pot. And her most beautiful work can lean into the abstract.
McBryde’s got a big, vibrato-tinged alto, biker-chick style, and she wrote or co-wrote everything here, including “Dahlonega,” with a sharp eye for piercing detail. She has a serious gift.
The rising Americana singer-songwriter flips the script on her ambitious seventh LP, with help from husband Jason Isbell.
The 14 songs on Interstate Gospel tell a tightly-woven story about adult restlessness, bittersweet farewells and hard-won independence. Several albums into their own individual and collective career, the Pistol Annies are less interested in singing about burning down their ex-husbands’ houses than in burning up their own dull lives in order to start anew.
Though Golden Hour might take time to relax into, the set is a fine lava-lamp soundtrack, and if "country" suggests engaging American musical traditions with respect and pioneer spirit, then this album is as country as it comes.