AMANDA ANNE PLATT & THE HONEYCUTTERS – Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters (Organic Records OR 16902)

HoneycuttersAmanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters (formerly known simply as The Honeycutters) is the fifth Long Player from the group and is available in the UK from August 4th, coinciding nicely with their first ever British tour. While there are folkie and rocky influences within this album, it is most noticeably a radio-friendly country affair, and one which showcases Platt’s immense talent for songwriting as well as the Honeycutter’s musical ability. In her own words Platt notes the album to be “…about life and all that entails” and like life (and like country music) great beauty and great sadness intertwine throughout. There are hellos, goodbyes, birthdays, deaths and many other bittersweet observations, yet it is by no means a gloomy record.

Opener, ‘Birthday Song’, ‘What We’ve Got’ and ‘Rare Thing’ are all thematically linked by a yearning for the past, but are also all written from a surprisingly contented vantage point, while the upbeat ‘The Things We Call Home’ simply celebrates the little joys of everyday life…and what’s wrong with that? However, as noted, this contentment is paired with melancholy, particularly in numbers like ‘Eden’, ‘Brand New Start’ and the poignant lament ‘Learning How to Love Him’, whose protagonist reflects on the challenges, triumphs and regrets of a four decade marriage, concluding that after raising children, raising voices, making mistakes and making choices, “This is what love is”.

However, Platt and co. arguably keep the best for last, departing with ‘The Road’, a simple, yet breathtakingly well-written song of parting and break up; bowing out on the lines “If time and distance make us strangers, Change our hearts and rearrange us, I’ll look forward to the day, my new eyes look upon your face, And recognize the smile of an old friend…I hope the road is good to you, til then”.

With great musicianship and story-telling songs which ring true to real life, it is hard to have any complaints about this album, and it is one of which Platt and her Honeycutters should be very proud.

Christopher James Sheridan

Artist’s website: www.honeycutters.com

 

‘The Road’ – live: