Braxton Keith’s debut album is among the week’s best efforts.
Owen Riegling
In the Feeling
Looks to split the difference between a Dirt Emo and mainstream country radio aesthetic; the result isn’t bad, per se, but it sounds a bit compromised as the former and a bit too strident as the latter. He has a solid voice for this style, but this doesn’t quite work.
Wilson Fairchild
American Songbook: Country Classics and Gospel Favorites
They remain two quite strong singers who seem to lack the ambition to do more than draw from their famous dads’ harmony work (in the Statler Brothers) on records of competent, formally conservative covers of familiar material. This is fine for what it is.
Coleman Jennings
Lead Me Home
Credit to this upstart for staking a fairly unique “& Western” niche among his contemporaries, but he doesn’t quite shake the impression of cosplay over the length of a full album in this get-up. And his unbridled vibrato will be, at best, an acquired taste.
Brother Wallace
Electric Love
The writing isn’t quite as powerful or distinctive as his singing, but maybe that’s an unfair standard for someone with a voice like this. His rootsy Southern soul– y’know, actual Americana–makes for an auspicious debut. His ceiling seems unlimited.
Ruben Ramos
Los Días de Calor
A legend of Tejano gets his flowers thanks to Carrie Rodriguez, who produces and brings in some ace collaborators. His performances are effortlessly smooth as he glides across genre lines. The “Cryin’ Time” (!) cover sets the tone early and showcases his essential talent.
Braxton Keith
Real Damn Deal
Finally, one of the neo90s traditionalists shows up with some actual songs and not just a bunch of obvious genre pastiches. In every way that matters, Keith hits all the notes and actually hears the music, and he’s shown up with a fully developed and outsized persona.
He’s also shown up with a voice that sounds a lot like a young Tracy Lawrence with a steadier sense of pitch, which sets him immediately apart from his interchangeable peers. So, too, does his incorrigible sense of mischief: His jokes either punch up or make himself the punchline.
While he still needs to learn to edit– not all 15 of these tracks are quite up to the task– the highs here (“I Ain’t Tryin’,” “I Own this Bar,” “White Walls”) actually back up the bluster of the album’s title. Quite a surprise, this one, as the best Music Row debut from a male act in a minute.
ERNEST
Deep Blue
He continues to try to atone for some of his genre sins, with intermittent success. This time, he’s offering what sounds like the best, most consistent Kenny Chesney album. Which is to say that this clears a swim-up bar set along a tropical shore but rarely elevates higher.
Amy Grant
The Me That Remains
For its introspection, empathy, and folk-forward brand of Americana, this set recalls Behind The Eyes in all the best ways. The songs explore matters of aging and legacy with real self-awareness, and how to reconcile that and extend grace when the world around you in no way resembles the better world that you’d spent your punchier years fighting for.
There’s some Normie Liberal sentiment, but her politics are too sharp and too nuanced to dismiss as cringe: Opener “6th of January” stuns for taking the Boomers to task on one of the year’s best singles.
Michaela Anne
These are the Days
As ever, there’s a warmth and clarity to her singing that impresses. But it isn’t enough to elevate what’s an awfully pedestrian set of songs. Yes, there’s a theme of finding beauty in the mundane, routine on this, but these lyrics are too often banal in making that point.
Ricky Chilton
Ricky Deluxe
In every way, this is the deluxe edition of his whole deal. The entirely too clever hooks, the nods to both punk and honky-tonk, the OTT drag revue of the persona, they’re dialed all the way up. And it’s dialed up in a way that showcases the talent behind the shtick.
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