A few years ago wandering in one of the many independent music groups that I follow on social, I came across a piece that really won me over.
One of those songs that you can’t ignore, so gently retro and damn current and then the voice comes and changes everything.
A voice with almost unreal intensity and with that warmth of soul singer.
One of those that when they arrive caress your soul and make you dream.
The title was all about Playin’ Old Records.
Of course I started doing research, but nothing was a newcomer and that was her first single.
Since I live on the other side of the world, I couldn’t even look for her in some club to see her live. I had to wait and after some other amazing single, like Cowgirl of 2020, the desire to listen more and see what would have been his debut has grown exponentially.
The concerts followed at a high pace, on the other hand those who want to make it in the States have the opportunities, but the street life for a musician is not easy, although I think it can give incredible satisfaction.
To hear the effect that your voice and your songs, the ones you wrote maybe at 3 in the morning lying on the back of a bus over the instruments, have on the audience must be incredible.
A feeling that Erin Viancourt must have experienced countless times, but there was once that changed her life forever.
I don’t know when and I don’t know where, but her wonderful voice has reached the ears of the “King of Independents”, Mr. Cody Jinks and since that day Erin’s career has undergone a breakthrough.
A breakthrough happened thanks to her superb talent as a songwriter and her incredible voice, no one, for me, deserves it more than her. A talent as a consummate artist, while she is only a very young woman, with a soul so ancient to anticipate the times.
Going on tour with Cody Jinks and the all star talent that accompany him, she improved and gave her the opportunity to mature in the sound and above all to become the first artist of the “stable” of the Texan: Late August Records.
An investment that Jinks probably made without even a second thought.
He must have thought that the adventure of becoming an artist’s record label couldn’t have a better start.
And that’s how Erin Viancourt’s first record, from Cleveland, Ohio, this wonderful Won’t Die This Way, is also Late August Records‘ first record (not by Jinks).
If you think that this girl has talent after listening to the 13 songs of this album, here you know that she is also co-producer with Kyle Dreaden and therefore is a talent at 360 degrees.
The music is her creation and the sound as well, a real independent on the other hand could not fail to be noticed by the “band leader” of today’s Independents, an announced couple.
The music you will hear coming out of the speakers already with the first, Cheap Paradise, is country out of time and fashions, a light and sunny sound that the persuasive and intense voice of Erin does not trivialize and elevate to great piece. An ode to the simple pleasures of real life, the one sung by independent country.
Crazy in My Mind starts with that honky tonk sound of guitars, a charming sound of country of other times, a modern version of the great of the past.
Erin Viancourt has everything to become a point of reference in the future.
Guitars and movement and a voice that enters the soul and never lets go. Friends one of my favorite lotto: the country rocker Straight Down the Barrel. To dance, to sing and how much I would like to be under the boards of a stage and hear her sing live.
The pedal-steel solo is a real gem, but then the band behind Erin is absolute quality: feel the keyboards to believe and the almost soul flavor of the sound.
The ballad Pray is a showcase for the crazy voice of the Viancourt, sweet and intense, the text is not less and you put in the farmhouse another beautiful piece.
But if I have to choose the song that should convince a lover of quality songwriting to listen to this album, the choice would definitely go on Letters to Waylon.
A country piece to lick the mustache, simple and never banal and that would certainly make proud the Waylon of the title (Jennings, nda.). Mention here for the band: the sound is from praise. Fantastic!
The title track, written in collaboration with Jinks and Kendell Marvel (in practice two of the most legendary authors of the modern country scene), is a small masterpiece: intense, played great and an incredibly expressive voice that tells us about the absolute complexity of the human heart.
A song that also reveals the influences that Viancourt has in its way of writing: from Jerry Jeff Walker to Patsy Cline and always does so with personality and a character that is not common in such a young artist. Moreover, at its debut. Another piece to be delivered to posterity, as well as the wonderful solo.
The first released single, Should’ve Known Better, has an almost epic pace and then becomes a wonderful song between country and American rock.
The secret is always the voice, always her: so sweet and at the same time gritty, as if in a jar of honey you had added a hot Mexican pepper. And the solo friends? Rock and roll baby!
A debut that I have waited for over 3 years and that has far exceeded all the hopes that I had to have found one of my favorite artists ever.
13 songs of a timeless expressive and poetic power and sung with a voice that can not leave indifferent your ears and your souls.
Erin Viancourt is a talent as few are born, it was understood immediately after the 2019 single, but today with this debut we have the certificate of controlled origin, stamped and signed by Cody Jinks.
Ladies and gentlemen want a quality music album? Well do not hesitate and put on the plate this record, so you too will become fans of an artist that we will hear about for a long time.
Erin continues to sing us “old records” and never stop.
Good listening,
Trex Willer by http://www.ticinonotizie.it
(in Ticino Notizie web site you can find original italian version of this article)
