Backed by drummer Chris Pepper, husband Joe Hughes on bass and daughter Rue on harmonies along with a smattering of guest contributions, the first to get a vinyl pressing, Kris Wilkinson Hughes declares this aptly titled collection with its songs celebrating connection, through music, storytelling and shared experiences, her best album yet. Not underselling her previous seven as MGTR, Cicero Buck and For Kate’s Sake, she’s not wrong.
A cocktail of folksy acoustic Americana and roots rock coated with her Louisiana tones, it opens, George Marinelli on electric guitar and Harry Whittey on keys, with the 70s Laurel Canyon feel of ‘Up The Mountain’, a song about aspiring and persevering to reach your goals (“one step at a time getting higher”) and reaching the metaphorical summit before readying to embark on another (“When I get down I will start again”), carrying with it the suggestion of either some divine or spirit guide as she sings “I am here and I can feel you now/Another mountain stands before me/ I can see it beyond the clouds/I will carry you with me now”.
Ryan Robinson on Rickenbacker, backed by Wurlitzer, the steady rhythm, vocally soaring ‘Heavy’ with its Brill Building echoes traces a similar theme about the weight we shoulder – external and internal – and the strength to move forward, but noting “just because I can carry it/Doesn’t mean it’s not heavy”, as she calls to “take in the lightness around” to fill those empty spaces. Steve Lee taking over the Rickenbacker with Whittey adding brass to his keys, the warm and joyful 70s soulful mid-tempo shuffling ‘Teenage Geek’ is a (presumably) autobiographical number about family uprooting (“Two weeks before freshman year moved again, my worst fear/Slept on the sofa covered it in tears, they told me it was temporary”) and her musical journey (“I would hang out in my parents’ room/Quietly strumming my latest tune…When my family drove to town/I stayed behind, played my records loud …The day after graduation/Said goodbye to all my friends/ Drove to the Delta…took my guitar to university”).
Pepper on Marxophone, ‘Breadcrumbs On The Water’ rides a slow soul and blues groove for a metaphor for inspiration in the act of creation and putting it out there (“They will float away/Ripples will expand”) but beyond that about making the most of opportunities when they come along now because “If you don’t let ‘em go/They’ll wither on the vine” so “don’t waste the gift of time”.
She on strings and her daughter on piano, the slow strummed ‘A Little Favour’ is about support and connection when anxiety overwhelms (“I’m afraid to fall asleep …Would you please come over?/Hold my hand until the dawn breaks … Another little favour/Since you’re here with me now/I can make us a coffee/Help us blow away these clouds/You can laugh at my little jokes ‘til the sun closes his eyes”) but also the possibilities that can unfold (“Would you stay here and see/Where the night takes you and me?”). It could, of course, also be surreptitious seduction.
Rickenbacker again in the frame, ‘Living Your Life (Everything is Alright)’ is another laid back bluesy groove, complete with babada bababada backing vocals, here conjuring thoughts of Van Morrison, that plays like a letter to her daughter (“When you were a baby/Though you were little/You were rocking the cradle …growing up happy/Sometimes you got rattled/Fighting those battles/But you turned out alright/Standing your ground/For what was right “).
Marinelli back on guitars and Jerry Dale McFadden on piano, one of the more Americana tracks, ‘The Good, The Bad, The Good’ is about how life means taking the rough with the smooth, offering comfort when needed (“here’s my smile for a little while to help you through”) and the carpe diem message “live your days like you’re running out of time/This could all be over in a blink” while, of a 70s soul nature and taking a slower, easy rolling pace, presumably for her husband ‘Without You’ charts the same thematic course (“The years have passed/And I know we’ve changed/But when we come together/To me we are still the same/When I need a shoulder/I can lean on you”).
Strummed with organ backing, the steady walking pace ‘Everywhere You Go’ is another affirmation (“When you leave me in the mornings/There is something you should know/You carry my love with you everywhere you go”), as she writes that even though “I don’t always get it right/My inner child picks a fight/And I spend the night with my anger/The last thing I want to do/Is waste a second when I’m with you”.
It ends with the strings-washed slow-walking strummed ‘Where Does The Rain Come From?’ with Pepper on piano and JP Ruggieri on lap steel, a final you are my sunshine amid life’s metaphorical dark clouds (“I don’t always know just how to show what I’m feeling…Maybe it’s the weight of the world pouring down/Maybe it’s the sadness we all feel when we’re lost/Maybe it’s the tears of the ones who have gone/Maybe it’s the tears of the ones who have gone first”) and how the smile of a stranger or the whisper from a lover (“You have nothing to fear ‘cause I’m always here”) can be the umbrella under which you shelter.
They say good things come to those who wait. With this album you don’t have to.
Mike Davies
Artists’ website: www.supertinyrecords.com
‘Everywhere You Go’ – live:
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