The Singles Bar: Candi Carpenter, ‘Cry Baby’

Welcome to The Singles Bar, a review series focused on new single and song releases.

Patsy Cline is the benchmark for power vocalists. And by power, we’re not talking belting, although she did a fair amount of that, too. We’re talking subtlety here, the ability to build a song from the ground up on rich storytelling and suitably crafted vocal tricks. From “Crazy” to “Walking After Midnight” to “Sweet Dreams” (our personal favorite), Cline could break your heart, part the Red Sea and tear down the mountaintops in a single breath. As a torchbearer of The Nashville Sound era, bringing lush strings from Top 40 into country tradition, she never shied away from pushing boundaries.

Over the ensuing decades, Cline’s influence has been unmistakable. From Reba McEntire and Wanda Jackson to LeAnn Rimes, who was heralded early on as a Cline heir, an abundance of musicians, singers and songwriters have drawn upon Cline’s catalog for their own work, blending together the pristine twinkle of a bygone era with whatever trends were occurring at the time. Now, enter newcomer Candi Carpenter, whose new song “Cry Baby” bares a striking resemblance to Cline’s sweeping orchestral compositions, tempered to modern audiences with its easily-addicting melody.

“You make me cry-y-y-y,” she swoops, alighting on Cline’s signature way of raw delicacy. “Now, baby, don’t make me cry / Rain, rain, go away / Stay out of my eyes / Blue birds never sing / Grey clouds cover the sky.”

“Cry Baby” is a soft burn, and Carpenter’s vocals, coming off such immediate tunes as “Burn the Bed” and “Nights & Weekends” (a rather Wynonna-esque jam), have never sounded so plush. On the song’s backstory, she says, “The stages of bars and honky-tonk dives became my classroom. I wanted to write a song that captured the way I felt as a teenage girl on those smoky, neon nights.”

Allegedly, and according to us, Carpenter is putting the finishes touches on her debut album, tentatively expected this year. “Because of my background in traditional country music, storytelling and details are really important to me. I’m trying to mix contemporary music with the traditional sound I grew up with to create something different. I’m just really glad Doug [Morris, executive of Sony Music] is behind that. It’s going to be a very different sounding record,” she said.

Frankly, Carpenter’s debut is the album we’re most stoked about. You?

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Listen below:

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