{"id":16056,"date":"2021-02-21T09:55:05","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T15:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/garyhayescountry.com\/?p=16056"},"modified":"2023-09-03T20:08:03","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T20:08:03","slug":"janet-simpson-to-release-her-new-album-safe-distance-march-19th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyhayescountry.com\/?p=16056","title":{"rendered":"Janet Simpson To Release Her New Album “Safe Distance” March 19th."},"content":{"rendered":"
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The highway\u2019s empty nobody\u2019s looking out<\/em><\/div>\n
We could be down the road before they know<\/em><\/div>\n
But we gotta leave right now<\/em><\/div>\n
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There are few things that are more healing than getting the hell out of town. Maybe it\u2019s a solo trip. Maybe you bring a friend. Definitely a lot of music. Don\u2019t say a thing to anybody. Just get in the car and go. Work it out on the road.<\/div>\n
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Safe Distance<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 the new album from singer, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, Janet Simpson<\/strong>, isn\u2019t a concept record, but it does take a journey. From Nashville to Reno (well, almost), to running away from demons, retreating from your troubles, hiding in plain sight, and returning liberated \u2013 ready to skip away again while your past looks on with a dropped jaw. But nothing here rambles aimlessly: Simpson\u2019s characters long to get free (and succeed) while navigating it all with confident purpose. They are reflective but never middling. They hurt but move to healing \u2013 or take the time to care for others. And they don\u2019t shy away for a good time \u2013 even if they\u2019re having too much of one.<\/div>\n
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The songs of Safe Distance<\/em> came to party as well. \u201cNashville Girls,” the album\u2019s first single, kicks everything off with plenty of swagger and style \u2013 less an indictment of artists but those who are attracted to the noise art makes. \u201cReno\u201d and the \u201cSafe Distance\u201d pair \u201cDitch Trilogy\u201d Neil Young with Lucinda William\u2019s gutbucket sense of meter. The [Dixie] Chicks would kill for a comeback song as breezy and carefree as \u201cI\u2019m Wrong\u201d \u2013 a song born for a sunny-day-windows-down adventure. The Fender Rhodes powered vamp of \u201cMountain\u201d is lust in search of the perfect parking spot. And \u201cWrecked\u201d is an immaculate kiss-off that moves mercurially with slyly wicked lacerations worthy of Nick Lowe or Van Dyke Parks.<\/div>\n
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But it\u2019s not all raucous: The albums more subdued moments often conjure thick, stormy atmospheres. \u201cSlip\u201d and \u201cAin\u2019t Nobody Lookin\u2019\u201d conjure the late night bleariness of classic Tom Petty but with choruses he could never pull off. \u201cDouble Lines\u201d has a steely-eyed saunter the recalls the  late Ennio Morricone. \u201cSilverman\u201d is so stark that it will leave you frozen in time. \u201cAwe & Wonder\u201d also takes advantage of the Rhodes \u2013 letting its bells ring out into an ether swimming in synthesized voices and fretless bass.<\/div>\n
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This last detail is worth mentioning because some of the album\u2019s sonic touchstones were late ’80s \u2013 early ’90s boomer statements by Bonnie Raitt, George Harrison, and Paul Simon \u2013 influences that were somewhat off the radar of the wunderkind engineer \/ mixer Brad Timko, who has been producing amazing records with a mix of analog and digital gear from the Communicating Vessels studio in Birmingham, AL, where Simpson and her band call home. Simpson and Timko worked closely in order to achieve the albums sonics, where minimalism reigned supreme. The songs were loosely written and rehearsed, but the band plays with supreme tautness, leaving plenty of room for Simpson\u2019s powerful voice and lyrics \u2013 always sharp and occasionally hilarious \u2013 to haunt the air just so.<\/div>\n
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Unbelievably, Safe Distance <\/em>is the first time that Simpson has widely-released an album under her own name. This is not to say that she hasn\u2019t been busy: Since getting her start in Atlanta in the late ’90s, Simpson has sheltered her dark whimsy under the guise of Delicate Cutters, wielded formidable guitar attacks with bubblegum skronkers Teen Getaway, toured the U.S. and Europe as a crucial member of Wooden Wand and the World War IV, and found a new writing partner in fellow Birmingham, AL musician Will Stewart \u2013 with whom she fronts the lean, atmosphere-forward duo, Timber, while also lending her many formidable talents to his solo material (and vice versa). It\u2019s a lot to take note of \u2013 and still doesn\u2019t cover her being the secret weapon on dozens of other albums for a wide array of artists. But Safe Distanc<\/em>e proves once again that Simpson is a force of nature \u2013 and it\u2019s her best work yet.<\/div>\n
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Janet Simpson’s Safe Distance<\/em> will be available on vinyl, CD and digital\/streaming platforms on March 19th via Cornelius Chapel Records.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The highway\u2019s empty nobody\u2019s looking out We could be down the road before they know But we gotta leave right now There are few things that are more healing than getting the hell out of town. Maybe it\u2019s a solo trip. Maybe you bring a friend. Definitely a lot of music. Don\u2019t say a thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t