BRiT TAYLOR - REAL ME

ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

November 22, 2020

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

Dan Auerbach produced our favorite record of 2019, Yola's Walk Through Fire.  In addition to serving as one-half of the Black Keys, he's also responsible at least in part for recent projects from Marcus King, Shannon Shaw, Nikki Lane, Jessica Lea Mayfield and others.  Not a shoddy track record.  Auerbach's signature sound tends to draw from early rock and trad country, and will often blend elements of garage and soul for good measure.  

Dan Auerbach doesn't produce Brit Taylor's debut full-length, Real Me, but he cowrote much of the record's material with the Eastern Kentucky-raised songwriter.  The sessions nevertheless share a sweet spot with some of those artists listed above.  And in addition to Auerbach, Taylor shares writing credit with masters of the form like Pat McLaughlin, Roger Cook, Will Hoge and more.  

But the heart of Real Me beats with the classic delivery of Brit Taylor, the thread that runs throughout her eclectic project.  With its claps 'n stomps, the attitude of "Wagon" brings to mind Miranda Lambert.  Mickey Raphael adds the golden touch of his harmonica, alongside a pitch perfect pedal steel line.  With its ambient bar noises and mob singalong, "Married Again" is a good-natured ode to D-I-V-O-R-C-E.  Taylor sings, I went through the big D / Hell it almost killed me.  She even makes a point of closing Real Me with a nimble take on Western swing on "Go Down Swingin'".  Where she reaches for more traditional country sounds, Taylor hits her target admirably, checking all the requisite boxes without compromise.  

But it wouldn't be a Dan Auerbach-adjacent collection if it didn't follow Brit Taylor into some other interesting musical corners.  Like Nicole Atkins, she has a way with what she terms a modern vintage vibe, conjuring sounds of the past and managing to invest them with a contemporary relevance.  "Back In the Fire" adds a slight psychedelic swamp to the Bobbie Gentry-esque country-soul.  "Real Me" showcases the real hurt to Taylor's voice: I'm so scarred / I've got a gun shy heart ...  And "Waking Up Ain't Easy" further indulges this melancholy streak, set to the tune of a real-life battle with depression and bad times.  

The real wonder to Brit Taylor's ten-song debut is that it goes down so easily, that it invites the listener to find a home in the music without sounding like it's busting a gut to impress.  No song overstays its welcome, with few straying past the three-minute mark.  The yodel of "Broken Heart Breaks" or the cry in the lovely and languid waltz "Raggedy Heart" are simply the signature of a talented professional.  With producer Dave Brainard, she's pulled off the very rare task of making perfection sound effortless.  

- War On Drugs, "Accidentally Like a Martyr" Live Drugs  (Super High Quality, 20)  D

- Steve Earle, "Harlem River Blues" JT  (New West, Jan 4)  D

- David Nance, "This Side of the Moon" Staunch Honey  (Trouble in Mind, 20)

- Lucinda Williams, "Man Without a Soul (acoustic)" single  (Hwy 20, 20) 

- Magnolia Electric Co, "Almost Was Good Enough" Trails & Errors  (Secretly Canadian, 05)

- Chris Stapleton, "Watch You Burn" Starting Over  (Mercury, 20)

- David Alvin, "Link of Chain" From An Old Guitar: Rare & Unreleased  (Yep Roc, 20)

- Rachel Brooke, "Picture On the Wall" Loneliness in Me  (Brooke, 20)

- Townes Van Zandt, "Why She's Acting This Way" Our Mother the Mountain  (Fat Possum, 69)

- Federales, "Quit Playin' That Guitar" Honkytonks & Hangovers  (Ellis D, 20)  D

- Lera Lynn, "Dark Horse" On My Own  (Lera Lynn, 20)

- Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy, "Deacon Blue" single  (Drag City, 20)  

- Kelsey Waldon, "They'll Never Keep Us Down" They'll Never Keep Us Down EP  (Oh Boy, 20)

- Dillon Carmichael, "Hot Beer" single  (Riser House, 20)  D

- Ryan Adams, "Oh My God Whatever Etc" Easy Tiger  (UMG, 07)

- Ottoman Turks, "Fightin' Blues" Ottoman Turks II  (State Fair, Mar 5)  D

- Buck Meek, "Pareidolia" Two Saviors  (Keeled Scales, Jan 15)

- Tim Barry, "Dog Bumped (live)" Live 2018  (Chunksaah, 20)

- John Calvin Abney, "Evening Tide" Familiar Ground  (Black Mesa, 20)

- Bonny Light Horseman, "Clementine" single  (Kill Rock Stars, 20)  D

- David Huckfelt, "Better To See the Face" Room Enough Time Enough  (Huckfelt, Feb 28)  D

- Todd Snider, "Yesterdays and Used to Bes" Viva Satellite  (Geffen, 98)

- Pieta Brown & S Carey, "Follow You" single  (Righteous Babe, 20)  D

- Margo Price, "Honey We Can't Afford To Look This Cheap (feat. Jack White)" Perfectly Imperfect at the Ryman  (Loma Vista, 20)

- Kacy & Clayton and Marion Williams, "Arahura" Plastic Bouquet  (New West, Dec 11)

- Sam Burton, "She Says That She Knows" I Can Go With You  (Tompkins Square, 20)

- Donovan Woods, "She Waits For Me to Come Back Down (feat. Katie Pruitt)" Without People  (Meant Well, 20)

^ Brit Taylor, "Real Me" Real Me  (Cut a Shine, 20)

- Ward Davis, "Colorado" Black Cats & Crows  (Davis, 20)

- Courtney Marie Andrews, "How Quickly Your Heart Mends" Honest Life  (Mama Bird, 17)

Time to start thinking about year-end favorites.  Update: I already have a preliminary list of albums.  Songs too.  Let's plan on an unveiling of our favorite songs list during the week of December 6.  We'll attempt a favorite records list the last week of this blessed year (week of December 27).  And expect our award-winning R&B Holiday Bonanza the week of December 20.  

Still working on your Christmas gift list?  We've added just a handful of quality releases to our Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster since last we convened.  Not a lot of holiday-centric records being released this year, but we can add a full-length from Infamous Stringdusters to that list.  Dust the Halls reaches stockings on December 4 via American Vibes.  Another tribute concert recording has been added to the release schedule.  December 11 will mark the debut for Willie Nelson American Outlaw, a 2019 concert featuring Nelson alongside folks like Chris Stapleton, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff and others.  Steve Earle and his Dukes will pay tribute to the music of the late Justin Townes Earle on JT, pending on New West Records come January 4.  Tamara Lindeman records as the Weather Station.  Typically, her recordings have been variations on pared-down indie folk.  Ignorance (Fat Possum, Feb 5) finds her adding diverse instrumentation for a more expansive sound.  Finally, we haven't heard anything new from Robert Earl Keen since 2011.  That will change with the release of Western Chill on November 21 courtesy of Dualtone Records.  

Earlier ROUTES-casts have been removed; subscribe to our Spotify page to keep up with all our new playlists!