Review Roundup: Nicki Bluhm and Mary Gauthier
As Summer approaches the album release schedule gets tighter so it's time for another review roundup. This week, I've got new releases from veteran Americana artists; Avondale Drive by Nicki Bluhm and Dark Enough to See the Stars by Mary Gauthier.
Nicki Bluhm- Avondale Drive- Released June 3
The second solo album from vocalist Nicki Bluhm since her split with The Gramblers finds her exploring a new world of single living, middle-age dating, and self-love, but also a wide range of musical styles that have influenced her.
The songs on Avondale Drive cover a wide range of roots music subgenres but are united by the consistent lyrical voice of Bluhm. One of the album's highlights is “Love to Share,” a co-write with AJ Croce that leans into both Bluhm and Croce's penchant for blue-eyed soul. It's a realization that love doesn't have to be given away but can be shared without diminishing the source. The gentle spoken interplay between Bluhm and Croce is a delightful throwback to the banter of classic Muscle Shoals and Motown soul tracks.
A song in a similar vein is “Friends (How to Do It),” this time a duet and co-write with The Wood Brothers' Oliver Wood. Here, Bluhm pokes fun at the modern dating scene, continually trying to find a single pal to hang out with but discovering too many think “hangout” and “date” are the same thing. “It's easy being angry, but harder being sad” Bluhm laments before asking “can you pick me up in your pickup truck without saying 'I'm gonna make her mine?” Like Croce in the previous song, Wood plays the straight man, tossing verbal softballs for Bluhm to turn into one-liners.
But the absolute star of Avondale Drive is “Leaving Me (Is the Loving Thing to Do).” It is so firmly rooted in the trappings of '60s classic country that I had to check and confirm it wasn't a cover. If Patsy Cline had performed this song, it wouldn't seem out of place. When Bluhm croons “You're already gone, so go” it brings up so many memorable hook lines, from Skeeter Davis wondering how the sun can go on shining while the world ends to Lesley Gore insisting she can cry at her own birthday party if she wants.
There's a lot to love on Avondale Drive. It's not just Bluhm's strongest solo effort, it's stronger than any of her Gramblers albums too. In a year that has, thus far, underwhelmed for knockout releases, Bluhm stakes her claim as one of the exception.
Mary Gauthier- Dark Enough to See the Stars- Released June 3
If Nicki Bluhm surprised, Mary Gauthier delivered exactly what you'd expect from one of Americana's most respected songwriters. There are no catchy hooks here, no verbal interplay. Gauthier doesn't play that game. She's always been as direct a songwriter as there comes, pulling no punches on tough subjects (see her amazing last album Rifles and Rosary Beads for an album willing to get very uncomfortable).
On Dark Enough to See the Stars, Gauthier pours one out for friends lost; John Prine, David Olney, Nanci Griffith, and so many more. On “How Could You Be Gone?”, Gauthier relates the surreal experience of a friend's funeral. “I'm looking for you in the crowd, looking for you in the clouds.” The album's title track continues this theme with “days go by, nothing works. I can't believe how much this hurts. I don't know where you are. It's dark enough to see the stars.”
But interspersed with the pain is a renewed appreciation of what joy is left. “Amsterdam” conveys the pure joy of travel to a favorite destination after a long period of pandemic isolation. “I Thank God For You” is about as straightforward a love song as you could want.
But it's “Truckers and Troubadours” that truly captures the soul of what makes Mary Gauthier tick. Co-written with a truck driver friend, the song is an ode to the long haul drivers who kept the nation supplied with essentials while everyone else was locked down. But it also muses on the similarities between truck drivers and traveling musicians. “On the stage, on the road, pack it up for the load. Thousands of miles left to do, just passing through.”
Is Dark Enough to See the Stars the gut punch that Rifles and Rosary Beads was? No, but nothing ever could be. But there's enough pain, pleasure, insight, and hindsight to keep any Mary Gauthier fan happy.