I listen to more music driving than I do just about anywhere else. That’s where the music comes alive to me. Any music. Different genres invoke a different feeling sitting behind the wheel. As far as country music goes, it’s highly visual in its telling of a story. What I see looking out of my windshield and windows becomes just as much as the part of the song as the rhythm of the guitar and the poetic verse that is sung to me. Country music is best heard on a drive on some back road or highway with wooded or open spaces. Where the sun light speaks to you as much as the melody, and as you look out your window across whatever landscape lays before you, you think of the rightness that is the moment you are in. The world could be crumbling from all sides. But it doesn’t seem to matter as much as driving west into a setting sun across oak filled wood lots and hay fields that go on until you can’t see them anymore.
Emily Nenni’s debut album, On The Ranch is one you can drive to. It’s a solid ten songs from start to finish. It’s an album, and not a few songs that you just want to cherry pick and listen to on your Spotfiy. That’s a good way to vet a good album from a bad one, whether or not you pick out a couple of your favorite songs. Or you can just press play from the beginning. Song one is called “Can Chaser”, which is a story about the trials of a rodeo barrel racer. Which admittedly I know nothing about. But if you’ve seen a rodeo before, then listen to the song. You may start to not be so much of a stranger to it. But it’s a fun listen from start to finish.
There really wasn’t any type of lag that I experienced with the album. Sometimes halfway through some albums, the energy wanes and the songs can start to develop a sense that they’re struggling to stay afloat. I didn’t get that impression with Emily’s music here. She has a haunting quality in her voice that sounds from another time. You can almost miss it because the songs are fun from start to finish. Listening to this album gave me the thought of wanting to catch her at a live performance.
“On the Ranch”, which is the album’s namesake, may have been my favorite. I liked the opening riff that sounded an awful lot like an old Waylon Jennings tune. But fit perfectly with her pitch and tone. If I ever get to see her in concert, I hope it’s at a small enough venue where you can experience a bunch of cowboy hats circling to the music in a two-step. Even if you don’t know how to two-step and you’re just a bystander, hat would sure be a sight for you to see. As for me, being a photographer, I’d like to capture that in a photo. But until that day comes, I’ll be listening to it on a state highway somewhere lost in the moment of the road. Not caring too much about what’s going on in the news, the negativity, or anything that can pull me away from the feeling that is nothing more than feeling good.
About the author: A lover of grit and romance. A seeker of life lived fully. The story of hard times and good times. Of perseverance, and the art that’s created by it all.