Words by Raf Kenny-Cincotta

“As our town changes, we’re all changing with it,” Keshia Bailey says, contemplating the release of LadyCouch’s sophomore LP A Matter of Time.

Of course, the town she’s referring to is Nashville, where Bailey and Allen Thompson first formed LadyCouch in 2017 at the famed Exit/In. However, the group didn’t stay a duo for long. Now a 12-part ensemble, LadyCouch has spent the better part of the last decade refining a rock-and-soul sound all their own. Their debut album The Future Looks Fine was released in 2021.

So what is different about LadyCouch in 2024, and how does A Matter of Time fit into their story? “There’s the obvious: We’re getting older,” Keshia quips. The band has also reached a new level of cohesion and collaboration, with Allen and Keshia happily sharing songwriting duties. “We knew we’d all be making music together for a very long time, but it’s pretty damn impressive that we are all still growing together,” Keshia adds

From Birmingham, Alabama, Kyle Kimbrell has been offering

high‑end Americana music since the release of his 2014 EP,

Nobody’s Fool. One of the nicest guys in Birmingham, Kyle is one

of the smoothest deliverers of fine lyric this side of the Jackson

Brown line.

An accomplished songwriter, Kimbrell’s sound has been

described as “cosmic American music, ” that ranges from the

swinging front‑porch blues to the spaced‑out Americana/alt‑country, painting a diverse and deep musical

landscape.

His songwriting resonates with soulful melodies and reflective‑suburban myths, rural hard luck and a city filled with iron

ore, capturing the essence of times from way back when to now.

Kyle delivers a message for the nervous, glass‑half‑empty folks

with enough room for a hopeful change in perspective. Despite

the storms, hypochondria, and paranoid sense of simple things

going wrong, Kimbrell makes us believe we’ll make it anyway,

damn it.His presence in the Birmingham music scene has left an indelible

mark, and his work continues to captivate audiences with its

heartfelt storytelling and musicality.

Easy Truths is Kimbrell’s second full‑length album, the follow up to

2020’s highly regarded From Rust To Real. While Rust was

recorded at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, MS with Matt

Patton, Kyle decided to stay home and record Easy Truths right

down the street at Boutwell Studios in Birmingham with his good

friend and producer Brad Lyons. With Lyons at the production

helm, Kimbrell’s music breathes deep and cuts deep. With help

from Liz Vann on harmony vocals, Daniel Raine (Little Raine

Band) on keys, Ford Boswell (Early James) on pedal steel and

Adrian Jose Marmolejo holding the bass down, Easy Truths

speaks it clearly and reeks authenticity and easy power.

His last one was recorded with Matt Patton of Drive‑By Truckers,

and there’s some of that about the rock n roll of “Holy Bombs”

this collection, though, was recorded back at home in

Birmingham, Alabama (not the one that I live just outside) and

there’s something of the south about “Punk Rock Girl” although it

has trippy air that you might think was the preserve of Wilco.

The best thing about this, mind you, is that there are no rules. Not

one.

“Poor Donny” adds some bar‑room piano, a filthy harmonica

and a working class air that might tempt Dan Baird out of

retirement.

If Donny was “15 deep” at the saloon bar, then “Bar Rat” is world

weary. The character is “throwing my aggression around at the

bar” and you sense it’ll envelop him at some point.

And I say “character” because you get the sense that a bit like

Springsteen, he’s expressing his worldview through the eyes of

others.

“In The Shit (Phil’s Song)” sees him sing “I’ve given up

dreaming big, from my place down in the shit, I am coming home”

And maybe accepting your lot is the point here, the point of “Easy

Truths?”

Whether that’s the case or not, there’s a bit of the brilliant

Bohannons about the way that “Take My Rest” lurks around, and

“Singing A Tune” is timeless as Americana gets.Kyle Kimbrell has simply mastered this in a way few do.

“Letters

From Home” wraps its reflection (“how long has it been since last

time?) in a hook that somehow sticks in, and “New World Order”

proves something that we haven’t really mentioned yet, and that’s

just how good the music is alongside this.

There are only two songs over four minutes long here, and the

last one,

“Wine Of Youth” is one of them and it’s got quite the

heavy chorus.

“Oh to be young again, with nothing but life to give”

he sings. Yet it does sound hopeful, somehow, like it was cathartic

and if music this good is being made, life can’t be all bad?”

2. Song Premiere: Kyle Kimbrell “Holy Bombs”

By Melissa Clarke, Americana Highways – February 14, 2024

“Americana Highways brings you this premiere of Kyle Kimbrell’s

song “Holy Bombs” from his forthcoming album Easy Truths,

which is due to be available on April 5 via Cornelius Chapel

Records. Easy Truths was produced by Brad Lyons and was

recorded at Boutwell Studios in Homewood, Alabama.

“Holy Bombs” is Kyle Kimbrell on acoustic guitar and vocals; Brad

Lyons on electric guitar, bass, and percussion; and Liz Vann on

harmonies.

With a title like “Holy Bombs,

” your curiosity is automatically

piqued. Opening with a description of the childhood game with

your hands clasped and “open your hands and there’s all the

people” catches a universal experience. And then grooving over a

bluesy rhythm and a respectable roots rock arrangement, thissong is a hard look into sinners and the harmful ideas that breed

in religion at the lowest level.

“I believe it’s just a choice you make … they’re one and the same,

Krishna and Buddha, just man made names, but we’re killing

each other at an alarming rate, sometimes over a parking space.