There’s something truly special about late 1960s and ’70s bluesy folk-rock. Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles, and The Rolling Stones cornered the market with grooves for days, loose, rollicking musicianship, and pop-cut melodies that inevitably wormed into the brain. Nashville Exile seem to be time travelers from a bygone era with their splashy debut LP, Hand Drawn. It’s as though someone discovered a lost record, and it’s only now seeing the light of day. The band—comprised of Matthew Crozer (vocals/guitars), Cat Smithurst (vocals), Amu Dennett (vocals), Rick Kent (drums), and Mark Smithurst (bass)— also gleefully brings back the glorious four to five-minute songs, stretching 11 songs into nearly a one-hour runtime. But it never feels sluggish or tepid. Quite the contrary.
“I don’t want to come back down / There’s nothing left for me on the ground,” sings Crozer in the bottle-opener “Collide.” There’s such an easiness to the performance that’s intoxicating, proven when the background vocals morph into a tight-knit tapestry on the wall behind him. It’s a chill, easy-going moment that sets the tone for what’s to come across the remaining tracks. But even so, Nashville Exile have more than a few tricks tucked up their sleeves. The first big surprise drops out of the sky with “Told You So,” featuring a guitar groove so eerily reminiscent of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” that you’re just itching for the mind-blowing mashup.
Crozer co-produced the album with Tom Lewis, and the team made sure to allow the vocals room to breathe, as evident with the brittle decay of “Flowers and Suicide” and the sticky chewiness in “Bye-Bye Baby.” The band focuses in on offering not just good melodies but songs with sick intricacies that make your heart melt like ice cream on a hot summer day. “Change” electrifies the spirit with strings pouncing from one to the next, and the guitar solo that feels like you’re standing there in the studio with the band. Two other surprises swing in like wrecking balls—”Dancer Like a Mother Fucker” is a roaring crowd pleaser with a bleached melody, whereas the harmonica in “Almost Gone” feels like another voice altogether. The give and take between the band members and their instruments is wondrous. You just want to drink in every single moment.
The group have all been making music and touring for decades separately. Together, they enrich each other’s craft and give incredible license to play, experiment, and cherish their influences on a much deeper level. Nashville Exile’s Hand Drawn makes a bid for among the best Americana-styled records of the year.
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