featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
May 2, 2022
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
I'll never get to know Maren Morris or Chris Stapleton. There's very little chance I'll ever see Taylor Swift browsing cereal boxes at a grocer near me. While my earlier years as a concert promoter introduced me to saints and to jerks, I've never needed to like the artists I presented, to get to know them as people. That said, I do appreciate when performers grant us at least a glimpse of who they are. Amanda Anne Platt. Lori McKenna. Erin Enderlin.
Caroline Spence. Spence puts forth her mission statement as a songwriter at the outset of her fourth album, True North (Rounder): I sit down here to work through my fears, she sings. And that's what I end up singing out loud. Beginning with her 2015 debut, through her excellent one-two punch of Spades & Roses and 2019's Mint Condition, she has embraced the role of a heart-on-a-sleeve songwriter, delivering some of the decade's strongest songs including "Southern Accident", "What You Don't Know" and the devastating "Sit Here and Love Me": I'm still someone you know / Please recognize my shadow / This is the same place from where I love you deeply.
While Spence operates near the crossroads of folk, country and pop, she identifies influences much further afield: In 2020 I did a nostalgic deep dive and listened to a lot of Nada Surf, Aimee Mann, Oasis - all the teenage mix tape all-stars ... For her new collection, she partnered with producer/instrumentalist Jordan Lehning, who has helmed projects for like-minded artists such as Andrew Combs, Joshua Hedley and Caitlin Rose. The songwriter also acknowledges her allegiance to literary figures on True North. That opening confessional is simply called "Mary Oliver", arriving with the bang of drums and with chiming keys, a larger and more radio-ready sound that permeates the sessions. Spence jabs at her reputation as a confessional writer: Turn off the record if you think I'm getting better / I don't want to let you down.
"Clean Getaway" begins with an electric pulse and more big drums, atmospherics that identify True North as not just another contemporary singer-songwriter standing at a mic. Rubbery reverb guitars and bright piano accents propel the song forward as Spence, rushing headlong into her thirtieth year, sings of her Saturn Return. Most days it's hard just to be yourself / But it's impossible to be anybody else, she sings, coming to terms with those elements of our younger selves that serve as an inheritance as we concede to adulthood. With its low-slung guitars and boom-crash percussion, "Walk the Walk" also delivers on Spence's sonic promise for a more rewarding listen.
Beneath the robust drums, the more insistent guitar and the studio touches, Caroline Spence's lyrical gift leaves no doubt about her perennial commitment to songcraft. Songs like "True North" and "The Gift" shine with acceptance and encouragement, and her cowrite with Lori McKenna, "Next Good Time" could be stitched and hung on a quiet kitchen wall: Grit your teeth / Get through it / And wait for the next good time. Inspired by Mary Oliver and Pema Chodron, "There's Always Room" bursts with these blooms of wisdom: Pain is just love with nowhere to go. These are hardwon perspectives as opposed to flowery Hallmark sentiments, aphorisms that the songwriter shares unabashedly.
In February, Spence released "I Know You Know Me", a duet with the National's Matt Berninger that raised questions about a possible musical redirection. Any changes simply serve to sharpen the focus on her growing confidence and directness as a writer, not to overlook Spence's increasingly distinct vocal delivery. Look no further than "Scale These Walls", a typically gratifying slice of melodic perfection that finds the singer issuing an invitation to breach her defenses: Come on over here and scale these walls / I built them just for you. True North is Caroline Spence in her element, at her most vulnerable. It's a step towards production and arrangement that bring her closer to the sound of her songwriting hero Taylor Swift, while sacrificing none of her humanity or her accessibility.
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Some good stuff added this week to A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, our perpetually updated calendar of new and forthcoming roots music releases. Wilco (finally) returns to the days of olde on their new alt.country-leaning collection. We look forward to Cruel Country on May 27 (dBpm). Patty Griffin dug through boxes of demo tapes for her new project. The lo-fi Tape in due on June 10 (PGM). Rod Picott is one of our most consistently reliable singer-songwriters. His 14th record, Paper Hearts & Broken Arrows lands on shelves on June 10, courtesy of his Welding Rod label. The always interesting Damien Jurado has set June 24 as a release date for Reggae Film Star (Maraqopa). Finally, in the wake of the passing of Dallas Good, the Sadies will release his final album. Produced by Arcade Fire's Richard Redd Parry, expect Colder Streams on July 22 (Yep Roc).
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