Set to a black and white beat, presented in the purest of forms, the title cut in Kentucky for Me is one of many songs offered to us by Dale Ann Bradley in her new album, but it at times feels like the right track to share a title with the parent record, even more so than the striking “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal” or “The Sun is Going to Shine” each is. With producers who can give a lot of clarity to the narrative here by her side, Bradley unveils a brilliant selection of bluegrass, Americana, and rarefied folk charmers in Kentucky for Me that doesn’t rely on a listener’s knowledge of the material in winning us over, and for instrument-dominant LPs, that’s not common in the least.
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Instrumentally, “Appalachian Blue,” “One By One,” and “God Already Has” are as robust as I could ask for them to be, even when they’re at their most stripped-down sonically. Handlers didn’t apply much varnish to any of the string parts in this album, and for that, I think we can all be quite grateful – after all, filtration only gets in the way of the naturally warm textures and tones found in roots music when it’s been recorded the right way. Bradley doesn’t need fanciful adornments to sound real; she sounds better in a raw setting above all others.
The vocal is always the most incendiary component of any track here, and in the smoky “Poor Man’s Pride,” a highly balladic bluegrass version of the Tom Petty classic “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” “Love Train,” and tracklist-starting “The Sun is Going to Shine,” it casts a bit of a shadow over the backing band entirely. The tone and texture in “Appalachian Blue” and “The Sun is Going to Shine” demonstrate her skill in sharing the burden of communication with another big element in the arrangement, but there’s a really special energy in situations where she’s left on her own to sink or swim. I’ve yet to hear the former for myself, and from the looks of Kentucky for Me, I won’t be anytime soon.
I like that this LP was produced more like a traditional folk album than a strictly bluegrass-based cocktail of mountain jams and covers, as a lot of other producers might have done if given the same material and melody maker to contend with. This approach finds tracks like “Kentucky Gold” and “Dogwood Winter” sounding harmony-focused – as they should – and free from the unseemly, almost mechanical sound becoming disturbingly common around the Louisville and Nashville undergrounds the same in 2023.
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You don’t have to be the world’s biggest Americana fan to appreciate what Dale Ann Bradley has to say in the new album Kentucky for Me, but for those who love the aesthetic and its most devoted caretakers, it’s a record that could be a favorite this June for sure. Bradley has been a fixture in her local scene for years now, but with the release of a compelling LP like this one, she extends her charisma to a litany of listeners around the globe who could use her soft-spoken attitude amidst the chaos of this emerging decade.
Garth Thomas