Motion, sensuality and narrative edgeâ¦the molten physicality of blues with Southern rock and gospel kneaded into the dough.

14 MP3 Songs
BLUES: Blues Vocals, ROCK: Americana

Show all album songs: Darlin' Understand Songs


Details:
ââ¦Stomps with the steady-pulsing sensibility of a drummer, certainly, but howls and wails with the influence of some talented folks you donât associate with drumming, like Bonnie Raittâ¦.ââNicole Keiper, The Tennessean

âHight marries a Southern literary sensibility with an ambient soundscape as languorous and pregnant with secrets as an August Mississippi night.ââJack Silverman, The Nashville Scene

âThereâs a narrative edge in Hightâs songs that reflects her knowledge of literature, and in particular Southern works. But the tone and edge in her singing and writing, augmented by excellent guitar/bass/drum interplay make Darlinâ Understand less esoteric and sharper than many similar works within the singer/songwriter arena.ââRon Wynn, The City Paper, Nashville, TN

NASHVILLE, TN: I might as well come right out and say that I wrote my own bio, which was no easy task, no matter how many of them Iâve written for others in the past. As a music critic, Iâm used to writing about what somebody elseâs album amounts to. Hereâs what I make of my own.

Darlinâ Understand is my first albumâ14 original songs (only one co-written) colored by the molten physicality of blues and the deep, unceasing pulse that I internalized through several years of playing the drums. I know this muchâIâve always been drawn to the more full-bodied and visceral approach to almost anything. I chose cloggingâwith its shuffling, loose-limbed motions and joyous whooping and holleringâover tap dancing, the drums over clarinet.

The musicianship on Darlinâ Understand occupies a potent place somewhere between audaciousness and precision. Those responsible are Charlie Rich, Jr., Delaney Bramlett, Chad Watsonâbass player for Charlie Rich, Ronnie Milsap, Janis Ian, Freddy Fender and Delaney BramlettâDave Perkinsâwhoâs handled guitar for Ray Charles, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Lucinda Williams and Carol KingâDwight McConnellâbassist for Earl Thomas Conley and T. Graham BrownâJason Eskridgeâbacking vocalist for Lyle Lovett and Jonny LangâBob Nickersonâwhoâs played drums for Sun Records, Jeannie C. Riley and Tammy Faye Bakkerâand Joshua Whitakerâthe raw, intuitive newcomer among the bunch. I co-produced the album with Watson and Nickerson, and let the latter use my 1975 Rogers drumkit throughout the recording process, the very same kit heâd used in the studio and on the road from â75 to â89 and later sold to me. Thatâs a story in and of itself.

Darlinâ Understand breathes like a two-sided LP, book-ended by lap steel-washed, Flannery OâConnor-inspired incantations (âPart I Man Without a Gunâ and âPart II Good Country Peopleâ) and punctuated midway through by an a capella chant set to heavy boot steps across my kitchen floor (âMy Motherâs Daughterâ). The passionate and the mundane are joined on the title track. The verses uncover the bones and sinews of a relationshipâwith a melody curling around a droning chordâand the chorus describes the humble, worn-in features of the partnersâ worldâeventually giving way to the cathartic back and forth of bottleneck guitar and B-3. âGuiltââsimultaneously pained and drollâwas an occasion for me to play a blender with a beer bottle. Songs like âSome Things (Gonna Be Left Undone)â and âJunebugâ cull earthy imagery from my familyâs geographical center (rural Warren County, N.C.) and my more than hundred-year-old East Nashville home. âPure Honeyâ melds minimal, hypnotic lyrics, modal vocal and bottleneck guitar melodies and the ragged dignity of a field drum march. As a seamless Southern R&B/rock and roll suite, âPoke Saladâ and âTigerâ jarringly juxtapose internal and external sources of profound human pain.

Iâve spent enough time with the album that I could go on forever. But I wonât. You have a listen.

CONTACT: info@jewlyhight.com

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