Review: Amelia White 'Love I Swore'

The “East Nashville Sound” became a natural counterweight to the Chet Atkins-coined cosmopolitan country of the “Nashville Sound.” East Nashville has always been the oddball cousin to Music City proper, the one from the other side of the tracks or, more accurately, the Cumberland River. The scene has had several standard bearers over the years (Todd Snider even named an album for it). Songwriter Amelia White has long been immersed in that scene. With her new album Love I Swore, she makes a case for carrying that flag forward into the scene's next iteration.

Nashville singer/songwriter Kim Richey produced Love I Swore and it's a more lush production than White's past efforts. While that might sound like it doesn't fit with East Nashville's grungier roots, there's enough DIY ethos in the album's lyrics to fit those roots perfectly. Rather than one cohesive style, White lets the songs dictate the genre, producing an album that bounces from country to folk to pop to blues and back again without ever losing its way.

Bluesy album starter “Something New Comes” sets the tone of potential loss and the struggle to keep life afloat. “What happened to this home / the one I've counted on,” White belts out of the gate. “Walk the empty rooms / like opening a closed-up wound.” By the time the chorus of “Are you hurting / like I'm hurting?” comes around, the answer to that question is yes. It's called the blues for a reason.

The album’s highlight “Can You See Me Now” has a '60s girl pop feel to it, all shimmering guitars and crystal vocals, but with a catch. Even here, the lyrics have the blues, with White singing “Out on the street/people I meet/seem so lonely.” But then both Lesley Gore and Skeeter Davis can attest that you can have pop vocals and still feel the depression. It's the end of the world and they'll cry if they want to. White doesn't cry here so much as chronicle a dive, with the song's title repeated throughout like a call begging for a response.

If there's a song that hits anywhere close to the Nashville Sound, it's “Beautiful Dream.” With a vocal assist from Ben Glover, White dives into classic country duet territory and nails it. White and Glover have just the right amount of twang to hit the sweet spot where hillbilly music intersects with cosmo country.

There is no end to the number of “life on the road” songs that have been written through the years, from “Turn the Page” to “Beth” that it seems like there isn't anything more to say about the topic. But White manages it, writing the most compelling song about tedium since “Dock of the Bay.” Stuck in an unnamed airport, White gripes that she's “stuck on the ground when I ought to be flying/sitting here watching my battery dying.” Anyone who's ever been snowed into a terminal will relate.

It's silly to start making “best of” lists in mid-February (though, in fairness, a LOT of albums have already come out), but I'll be surprised if Love I Swore doesn't wind up somewhere on mine. It's one I keep coming back to like a comfortable chair. Even if it’s a blue one.