Cooking Vinyl COOKCD744P

****1/2

Who would’ve thought that one of the best ‘country’ albums of 2020 would be by a British pop singer … but it is! NASHVILLE TEARS is a superb collection of songs penned by the ‘relatively unknown’ Hugh Prestwood and sung by UK pop stylist Rumer. I can imagine many asking who is this Hugh Prestwood guy? Over the years he has beguiled me with so many songs that have made both a personal and emotional impact with me such as Asking Us To Dance, On the Verge, Ghost In This House, Just Can’t Stand To Be Unhappy, The Song Remembers When, The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulder, That’s That, Back When and Heart Full Of Rain. Many of his finest creations are buried in albums, because Hugh Prestwood doesn’t write songs for radio play, he writes songs that really mean something.  He is a wordsmith who pulls no punches. Some songs may make you uncomfortable but leave you marvelling at his songwriting just the same. No matter the topic, Hugh brings a timeless country poetics to songs both difficult and fine, proving that even if he doesn’t get his due now, his songs will live on for centuries after this. If there was any justice in the world of music, his name would be mentioned in exalted tones alongside Kristofferson, Clark, Prine, Crowell, Newbury and Van Zandt.

Born and raised near El Paso. Texas, Hugh worked as an English teacher before moving to New York city in the mid-1970s to pursue a career as a songwriter. Early supporters were Neil Diamond, Alan Lorber and Judy Collins but it was when country artists including Crystal Gayle, John Conlee, Anne Murray, Collin Raye, Don Williams, Shenandoah, Tanya Tucker, Michael Johnson, Suzy Bogguss, Kathy Mattea and Sammy Kershaw started recording his songs that he finally gained the kind of recognition he so richly deserved, being inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006. Rumer (real name Sarah Joyce) was born in Pakistan to English parents, returning to the UK with her mother and seven siblings when she was five.  She began singing professionally in her early 20s with La Honda and then Rumer & the Denials before launching her solo career in 2010 with SEASONS OF MY SOUL which became one of the UK’s biggest selling debut albums accumulating sales in excess of one million, For the past four years Rumer has lived in Arkansas and Georgia in America’s deep south with her producer-husband Rob Shirakbari. It was there that she developed a passion for country music. 

NASHVILLE TEARS is her fifth album. Recorded in Nashville, producer Fred Mollin gathered some of Music Row’s finest including Bryan Sutton, Mike Johnson, Scotty Sanders. Pat Buchanan, Stuart Duncan. Mandy Barnett, Gordon Mote, Larry Paxton and Lost Hollow (Tommy and Lorrie Harden) to create one of this year’s most treasured releases. With a blend of traditional country-pop and singer-songwriter appeal and melodies that just won't leave you alone and a voice that tugs at your heart this is one of those rare albums that demands repeated listening. Tales of rejection, break-ups, heartache and regret turn into heavenly earworms at Rumer’s touch. Lush strings set the scene for The Fate Of Fireflies before an acoustic guitar, pedal steel and light percussion sweep in on the sweet romantic tune with its undertones of impending heartbreak.

Mostly though, Rumer focuses on story songs and narratives, like the story of an abused stray cat in Oklahoma Stray. The first time I listened to it, I was transfixed, getting misty-eyed as soon as Rumer’s voice came in on the enchanting yet sombre tale. A little lighter is the delicate Bristlecone Pine (Ft Lost Hollow); a song that is triumphant and sorely necessary: the story of someone waking up to what’s around them and delighting in the memories and beauty of life. Ghost In This House, is a song I’ve loved for 30 years ever since hearing Marty Raybon and Shenandoah’s definitive version. Rumer manages to take the bleak country ballad and turn it into a glorious emotional catharsis full of a gorgeous string and pedal steel arrangement. The sensuous Deep Summer In the South has a swampy rhythm with a smooth southern soul vibe that conjures up images of back porches, iced tea and fly swatting.
Heart Full Of Rain is a classic country-pop song up there with the likes of For The Good Times and Help Me Make It Through the Night. I first heard it by Collin Raye. Rumer manages to make it her very own as her voice rings out with just the right amount of pathos as the music spins a country waltz on the high wire. Truer words were never spoken in the poignant, heart-tugging mid-tempo Hard Times For Lovers that gently sways along as Rumer sings without sorrow or regret, simply conveying a realistic, sad truth. Half The Moon is a slow, pretty shimmer of a song telling the age-old tale of a failed romance. In it, a pair of lovers separate when one of them flees the scene, leaving the other with a broken heart and a realisation that maybe it is actually for the best. The Song Remembers When just might be one of the finest songs ever written. Most country fans will be familiar with Trisha Yearwood’s 1993 rendition. Rumer takes a similar approach. Carefully sculpted and fragrantly built, there's a slight country edge at times which makes the reminisce all the more romantic. Maybe the most powerful song here is The Snow White Rows Of Arlington … a soldier’s sad farewell to friends, family and home as he sets off to war. If you’re not moved by that one song, then you don’t deserve to call yourself a music lover. I appreciate that some may question my assertion at the beginning of this review that NASHVILLE TEARS is a country album. If, like me, you consider singers like Trisha Yearwood, Faith Hill, Martina McBride and Kathy Mattea as ‘country’ then this album qualifies as Country with a big capital ‘C’.

www.rumer.co.uk

April 2020