“first Time Feeling” is the perfect name for a debut album that takes traditional Americana musical themes and pumps them full of emotion. All kinds of emotion. Sweetness. Love. Misery. And the sharing of misery.
Remember how amazing it was when you first heard Faithless Street? Or The Story? Or Car Wheels on a Gravel Road? Or Sirens of the Ditch? This is a debut that belongs on the shelf with those great debuts/breakout albums.
Standout track “Beautiful Disaster” is one of the most compassionate relationship songs I’ve ever heard. I can’t stop listening to it.
And Clutter, where Blevins sorts out what hers and his in a struggling relationship, is brilliant. And the title track? Great single.
Blevins is 31, which, frankly, is on the older side to be releasing a first record–but age is not a bad thing. Her voice is strong and her songwriting has an element of hope and wisdom that’s hard to come by in 20somethings.
And speaking of the number thirty, her label, Thirty Tigers, has launched some of the best Americana records of this century. If my word isn’t good enough, take theirs. Check out this record. It’s terrific.
