A promising preview of the upcoming Trisha Yearwood album.
“Pancho & Lefty”
Paisley Fields featuring Laura Stevenson
Written by Townes Van Zandt
Jonathan Keefe: Paisley Fields and Laura Stevenson both operate in such singular ways as singer-songwriters in their respective genres– country for him, indie rock for her– that it’s fascinating in and of itself that they’d team up to cover such a canonical work as “Pancho & Lefty.” It’s perhaps not a surprise, then, that the playfulness of the arrangement and the interplay between Fields’ arch delivery and Stevenson’s more reserved phrasing.
It suggests that there’s more to this familiar story than perhaps other renditions have let on. I don’t know if I’m fully convinced by the implications in their performances that Pancho and Lefty might’ve been more than just frenemies, but I do appreciate that Fields and Stevenson have attempted to add a new wrinkle to the tale. B+
Kevin John Coyne: The rather jaunty approach to this modern Western standard had me jonesing for an uptempo Dwight Yoakam version from the Under the Covers era.
There’s a sense of “everyone knows this one by heart, let’s keep it moving” to the efforts here that reminds me of when an artist with longevity needs to get through the old stuff early in a set list. I was fully prepared for this to be a medley that went into something else completely after the first verse.
In a sense it did, because it feels like Stevenson is singing on an entirely different track. Her performance brings reverence to the otherwise perfunctory. It’s an interesting contrast, but not one I’d consider essential listening. B
“Bringing the Angels”
Trisha Yearwood
Written by Beth Bernard, Leslie Satcher, Bridgette Taylor, and Trisha Yearwood
KJC: We’ve heard enough of Yearwood’s self-written material already to know that her penchant for good taste carries over to her own compositions. She’s not going to record an embarrassing track just for the royalty.
What I find fascinating about “Bringing the Angels” is that now that she’s writing her own take on the celestial, we get a clearer window into her own spiritual worldview. The dogged resilience of the women she’s always sung about is clearly anchored in her “bring it on” approach documented so well here.
How can she lose with the angels on her side? B+
JK: As I’ve said before, despite her reputation as one of the genre’s all-time great ballad singers, bluesy Trisha is always my favorite Trisha. And, stylistically, “Bringing the Angels” is certainly of a piece with tracks like “Wrong Side of Memphis” or “You Say You Will.” I love her in this mode, and I love that she’s formally introducing her new album era in this way.
The song is terrific, too: The idea of solidarity is important to the narrative without becoming too heavy-handed, making for a single that trades in actual empowerment instead of more performative uplift. My only quibble with this, really, is that I was waiting for Trisha to cut loose with at least one full-on growl– think “Heaven, Heartache, & The Power of Love” or her recent collab with Wynonna on “Cry Myself to Sleep”– to give the single even more ferocity. But this– and “The Wall or the Way Over”– certainly indicate that her forthcoming album is going to be a stunner that’s worthy of one of country’s finest “album artists.” A-
I’m loving the Trisha Yearwood single! This side of her is my favorite too. I’m looking forward to the album and I’m super glad that she is doing this! I’m happy for her that she is stretching herself to try new things like songwriting. It’s also really cool that she has written with and is touring with Sunny Sweeney.