I sometimes get surprised when a musician releases a debut album. Their industry stature and experience just led me to assume that along with all their other projects they’d somewhere along the line done a solo record. Such is the case with Charleston’s Shelby Means. With groundbreaking and Grammy-winning stints in Della Mae, and Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, I expected her catalog included one, or more, solo efforts. Turns out that once again I was wrong, and her debut dropped last week.
Less surprising is that it’s first and foremost a bluegrass record. Opener Streets of Boulder is a traditional number Means wrote in college, and features her brother, Jacob, on mandolin. Bandmates Molly Tuttle and Kyle Tuttle contribute harmony vocals, and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes takes fiddle duty. Suitcase Blues, a co-write with husband Joel Timmons and producer Maya de Vitry, calls out Means’ time with Della Mae and the lonesome life on the road. Up On the Mountain was a joint writing effort with Langhorne Slim. Like all the songs, Bryan Sutton takes the lead on guitar. His Hot Rize colleague, Tim O’Brien, provides harmony vocals, with Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas also pitching in on instrumental parts. The funnest tune is 5 String Wake Up Call, a collaboration with Brennan Leigh. It recalls both their experiences with a father who had a creative streak when it came to an alarm clock for his young daughter.
Means chooses to show off her vocal range on several non-bluegrass cuts, like High Plains Wyoming. Recalling her youth in the Cowboy State, it’s a country ballad where the tempo and lonely wail portray perfectly the wide open spaces. Fisherman’s Daughter is a Celtic-tinged ballad about losing a daughter to the sea, and showcases Keith-Hynes again on fiddle. Elephant at the Zoo is a Crooked Still-inspired folk number with some really sweet old-time jazzy vamps. With one of the two covers on the album (the other being a countrified version of Lady Gaga’s Million Reasons) Means does total justice to George Jones’ Old Old House. It’s a 60-year-old country waltz down to every detail, with Ronnie McCoury and Sam Grisman providing the on-point harmonies.
Playing bass with two of the pioneering bluegrass bands of the last couple of decades gave Shelby Means, and producer Maya de Vitry, access to a who’s who of string band icons. That embarrassment of riches could have overshadowed the songs themselves. But Means is a woman who knows what she wants and wasn’t afraid to give some direction in the studio. The result is a spectacular debut album that’s going to have some staying power on your playlist.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.