Album Review – Chapel Hart’s “The Girls Are Back in Town”
The discrimination in today’s country music is pervasive and real. It’s hard enough to make it as a musician as it is, since so many endeavor and dream to, yet so few spots exist in the world. Then imagine having to try and endure when everyone looks at you as being different, couches you as an outsider, closes doors in your face, and say that you don’t belong. Yes, we’re talking about the dogged discrimination that persists systemically throughout the country music industry when you don’t fit in because you have the audacity, the gall to actually play actual country music.
This is what the Chapel Hart trio has been enduring against for years now, while still finding success. Sisters Danica and Devynn Hart, and their cousin Trea Swindle started singing together as little girls while growing up in Poplarville, Mississippi, population 2,800. Though soulful influences crept into their repertoire, and their Gospel roots always remained there just beneath the surface, more often than not, when the voices of these three women conjoined in song and they started composing their own material, country music is what came out, and of the true and traditional kind.
The trio eventually moved to the big city of New Orleans, and now after coming up playing on Royal Street in the French Corner and cutting their teeth wherever else they could, it’s now time for them to seize their moment with their second album The Girls Are Back in Town—an impassioned and sonically diverse work that’s unabashedly country, while also including a little rock attitude and even some contemporary cuts to appeal to a wide cross section of the country genre.
It all begins with the voices of Chapel Hart. When they’re at their best, any song could be stripped back to an a capella arrangement and still shine. But it’s the diverse expressions they explore within the country genre that makes this record entertaining, with unexpected turns and lots of ground covered, all with a keen adeptness and imbued with blood harmonies.
You have numerous straightforward traditional country songs, like the opener “Nearly Over You,” “Just Say I Love You” written by Brady Seals of Little Texas, and “Angel.” But if you had an entire record of this slow and twangy stuff, it may be a little too sleepy for the stratosphere these ladies are aiming for. So they also find a little attitude in songs like “Grown Ass Woman” and “The Girls Are Back in Town,” where the troika evoke influences of artists like Terri Clark, Gretchen Wilson, and Miranda Lambert, even dropping hard cuss words, eschewing any notion they’re just coy little Gospel sweethearts.
They even take today’s mainstream country to task in the song “Tailgate Trophy,” turning Bro-Country tropes upside down, and directly mocking the awful Florida Georgia Line / Luke Bryan song “This is How We Roll,” along with most of the mainstream’s Bro set when they sing, “I won’t slide my sugar shaker, shake my money maker ’cause you hear it in a song on the radio // ‘Bout some guy with a guitar that they turned into a star, and now you found out that he couldn’t even sing a note.”
If you did your best to enjoy Maddie & Tae, but always wanted them to be a bit more country, a little less pop, and to lean even more into their attitude, Chapel Hart very well may be right for you. And the good thing about The Girls Are Back in Town is it has enough variety of songs to appeal to a wide audience of both mainstream and independent listeners. While refusing to give into drum machines or other modern country antics, they’re still fun, and fresh.
This album may veer a little too far from the script at times though. Produced by Jeff Glixman—who is known as the long-time producer of the rock band Kansas, and also worked with late-era Black Sabbath and other rock/metal bands—sometimes the guitars on this album get a little too screamy for the situation, despite the album otherwise including a good amount of fiddle, banjo, and steel guitar. “That’s a Redneck Summer Night” sounds like a Chase Rice song, not Chapel Hart. But you can tell the band is probing here, trying to find their sweet spot, and where they may resonate most with an audience.
And no, their audience isn’t the NPR-listening Americana crowd who loves to flatter themselves by the “diversity” found in their playlists. Earlier in August, Chapel Hart played a week straight in Sturgis. They are unabashed country girls with that “sinning on Saturday, praying on Sunday” approach to life, indicative of their song “Jesus & Alcohol.”
You can cry all you want about what the whole “woke” thing has done to American culture. But the truth is country music does have a ways to go in being a completely open place for black and brown performers, and women especially. But if you want to support black women in country, then they have to be black and they have to be women, but they have to be country too.
Chapel Hart is a lot more country and a lot better than many of today’s mainstream “country” acts, and we don’t have to patronize or flatter them simply due to the color of their skin. They have earned their applause, and a rightful place in the country genre, and much more than most of the generic whites dudes from the ‘burbs that make up most of radio country today.
1 3/4 Guns Up
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Purchase from Chapel Hart
August 30, 2021 @ 8:22 am
“The discrimination in today’s country music is pervasive and real.”
I got pissed, and then I finished reading the paragraph. Nice.
They’re good, and they seem legitimately country.
What if, their perceived status as victims allows them to get C(c)ountry music on the radio? Subversive? Maybe. But I like it. Use Woke™️ Nashville’s current political ideology against itself in order to promote C(c)ountry music.
Nashville Executives: “I can’t stand C(c)ountry music, but if we don’t play them, we’ll be racists!”
Do you think these ladies thought of that?
August 30, 2021 @ 8:38 am
If Chapel Hart is able to take advantage of the extra emphasis on black women in country music at the moment, I’m 100% for it, because they’re country, they’ve paid dues, and they deserve it. If one of the byproducts of country music’s “racial reckoning” (which mostly is just a gaggle of Twitter accounts larping into an echo chamber) is that black artists that play actual country music that have faced an uphill battle for years finally start receiving their due, then hey, something good has come from it.
It’s not that the race concerns in country aren’t real. It’s that pushing a bunch of hip-hop acts or derivative pop stars down our throats solely to satisfy some symbolic racial quota doesn’t really address the issue in the first place. In fact, it hurts it. There are many true country artists that happen to be black. Importing pop and hip-hops acts into country only helps to shade them out.
August 30, 2021 @ 8:52 am
…..”It’s not that the race concerns in country aren’t real”…..
They’re definitely NOT real, and I think you’re pandering when you say they are. And I think the reason you’re pandering is because you don’t want to piss off half of your readership (the half that cries and threatens to stop reading, but doesn’t actually stop reading). It’s like like you’ve found a comfortable spot for yourself where you can speak just enough truth to be credible, but not too much, because you need to eat. That sucks. But it is what it is, I guess.
August 30, 2021 @ 9:01 am
You don’t pander these days by making statements that instill the truth and nuance into a topic. This is how you piss off both sides. You pander by rushing to one side of the binary, and lobbing grenades at the other.
August 30, 2021 @ 10:19 am
Most of the conservatives on the website are racist trigger , just read their comments. They do not think there is a problem in reality like you said the problem is very real. I think these girls are great and I support them 100 percent. I hope they can defeat the racism that exists in the music industry. And I hope they last a very long time.
August 30, 2021 @ 11:19 am
Trigger,
Either something is true, or it’s not true.
Intentionally conflating correlation with causation, so that you can pretend there is nuance, in order to pat yourself on the back for not “rushing to one side …of the binary”, is as dishonest as rushing to the side of the binary that is false.
Here’s an example of what you’re doing, using an extreme illustration that makes it a little more obvious.
Imagine you ran a website devoted to politics. And let’s say you had readers from across the political spectrum, including Confederate sympathizers. And let’s pretend you were having a discussion with your readers about slavery, but you wanted to piss off as few of your readers as possible, and so you said something like this:
“Slavery was absolutely unconstitutional, but I’m not completely convinced it was absolutely evil. After all, slaves were given room and board.”
That statement mixes fact (Slavery was unconstitutional), and then adds a touch of “nuance” in order to keep those Confederates happy. The nuance does nothing to change or disprove the fact that slavery was absolutely evil, but at least you would’ve avoided pissing off a bunch of your readers.
That’s exactly what you’re doing with this issue. If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying that because there aren’t a ton of black women on Country radio, that the cause of that is racial and gender discrimination.
August 30, 2021 @ 12:40 pm
Honky,
I’d much rather have a conversation about Chapel Hart and their music than hypotheticals about IF this wasn’t a music site, and IF I was addressing “Confederate sympathizers.”
“If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying that because there aren’t a ton of black women on Country radio, that the cause of that is racial and gender discrimination.”
No, that’s not my stance at all. As I have pointed out many times, the vast majority of popular American music is dominated by black and brown people. Weekly 75% to 80% of the Billboard Hot 100 represents BIOPIC performers, while white performers barely raise a blip, even though whites make up some 70% of the American population. Just because country music does not have 50% black performers doesn’t make it racist. It’s just the cultural preference of white and black populations. White America lost the culture war 15 years ago. It just happens to be country music is one of the last popular expressions where agrarian whites are still represented.
All that said, I don’t think it’s a stretch whatsoever to assert that if a country act such as Chapel Hart was being considered by a major label, they would likely be passed over for the preference of some hunky white dude. Is that because the label is full of white supremacists? Unlikely. It has much more to do with simple economic interests. But I think it’s fair to point out it is also due at least in part to an entrenched mentality that country music is just not the domain of black people, except in very small representative numbers. I feel we do need to challenge this mentality if country music is truly to be an equal playing field for all people, and if we’re to find the most talented people making country music to rise to the top.
August 30, 2021 @ 11:32 am
Trigger,
This clown known as “Countryfan68” is a case in point. Good thing you towed the line; you could’ve easily caused him/her to threaten to stop reading.
August 30, 2021 @ 12:26 pm
Again, I lose more readers by refusing the tow the line toward one side or the other … and by allowing commenters like you to continue to post.
August 30, 2021 @ 12:43 pm
Commenters like me? To heck with you.
Lil Dale ranked me in top 4 of all time.
August 30, 2021 @ 12:51 pm
Comments are the primary reason I hear in exit interviews from readers why they’re moving on, not because I fail to take a hard position on one thing or another.
August 30, 2021 @ 1:52 pm
…”I’d much rather have a conversation about Chapel Hart and their music than hypotheticals about IF this wasn’t a music site, and IF I was addressing “Confederate sympathizers.”…..
I don’t want to talk about that either, which is why I clearly stated it was an illustration used to make a point in regards to the issue we ARE talking about.
…”But I think it’s fair to point out it is also due at least in part to an entrenched mentality that country music is just not the domain of black people”…..
Who holds that mentality? I literally(not figuratively) know 0 people with that mentality.
Again, I believe you’re making an issue out something that isn’t issue, as a wink to a certain segment of readers.
As for these ladies, as long as they stay country, they have my support. If they ever go pop, I’ll talk about them the same way I talk about any other sellout pop singers.
August 30, 2021 @ 2:31 pm
“Who holds that mentality? I literally(not figuratively) know 0 people with that mentality.”
Frankly, I think a lot of black people hold that mentality—that they can only like country in the closet, or as a guilty pleasure, or that it’s not their place to perform it if they so desire. That’s what makes a group like Chapel Hart so important. It dispels that myth.
August 30, 2021 @ 5:41 pm
“Most of the conservatives on the website are racist trigger”
This is a more fucked up comment than “most conservatives” make. It’s just as judgmental and brainless of a comment as an actual racist would make, ironically.
Sad that this is the conversation around this music. I like people that buck the trend. Making anything akin to traditional country music these days takes conviction, and these women surely have as much or more than most, but Trigger you can’t be surprised by these comments when half your review was spent focusing on their race.
August 30, 2021 @ 10:25 am
King, what makes you believe race concerns in country aren’t real?
Looking forward to listening. I had not heard of this group previously.
August 30, 2021 @ 11:30 am
Conrad,
The person making the accusation has to prove that its true. You can’t just make an accusation and then tell someone to prove your accusation false.
Define “race concerns”.
Also, please confirm or deny if you are of the belief that diversity is in-and-of-itself a virtue, or is it simply an amoral consequence of human existence?
August 31, 2021 @ 4:20 am
@King. I guess what I’m looking for is a little empathy on your part. I got booked privately in Nowhereville, TN recently and I went to check out the venue two weeks ago. The neighboring business had the bars and stars flying proudly. There was also a large Confederate flag right on the highway by the exit to the town. I asked the booker if the town is pretty cool or if it’s kinda racist. He told me he probably wouldn’t sleep there if he was black, and that he’s never seen a person of color inside city limits. I would define that as a race concern. Since half of us are not white, I’ll get an AirBnB in Nashville or Knoxville so the whole band feels comfortable. They tell me they feel uneasy in a lot of places country music gets played, and I have heard them being yelled at and cursed for the color of their skin. I could pretend that they are exaggerating or making it up, but that’s not my place. Empathy! I’m not a liberal democrat snowflake what-have-you. I have guns and goats and horses and all that stuff, but if someone says they are hurting, you listen.
August 31, 2021 @ 8:47 am
Conrad’s got it. I very much believe that the real issues with discrimination in music are at the entry levels, not at the top. Sexism, too. Everyone loves to fight about whether or not representation in radio means sexism is a problem, but no one seems to care that a whole mess of promising, talented females get driven out of music by regularly being sexually harassed at the Tuesday night bar gigs you book when you’re just starting out. The problem’s at the source.
August 31, 2021 @ 5:11 pm
Conrad,
That’s it? Your belief that the Country music industry has race concerns is based on your experience in a small town in Tennessee? An anecdote? If I experienced what you did, my conclusion would be, “Well this town sucks.” There’s bad people of all races anywhere you go. I’m encouraging you to deal in reality, which can be determined by statistical data. I don’t wanna go down that rabbit hole here…well, I do, but Trigger will censor the dog piss out of it.
Something is either true, or it’s not true. Our individual experiences don’t change what is true. If someone is hurting because they believe something that isn’t based in reality, should society bear the burden, or should that person be encouraged and expected to find out the truth?
August 31, 2021 @ 7:49 am
No one on this site is quite as boring and predictable as King Honky. You’re putting us to sleep junior.
August 18, 2022 @ 1:12 am
Just a quiet comment that the use of vulgar language like “motherfucker” in a country song is to say at the least disrespectful of the country music genre. It’s great that women of all color are wanting to be part of this long standing American music that has always kept it’s words clean. I for sure would not let my daughter sing that song. They are good singers and I don’t think they have proven any love of country music with that kind of lyric. I think it might be a gimmick. I always love country music because it doesn’t have to use a knifes edge
August 30, 2021 @ 8:31 am
I think they’re a great band, great voices, some catchy songs and so much better than the beer/Truck/girl songs written by numbers from Nashville.
August 30, 2021 @ 8:42 am
Water down , homogenize, liquefy ….that is what Hollywood and New York is doing to country music.
Woke to the nth degree…..
August 30, 2021 @ 8:59 am
Nashville needs no assistance from Hollywood or New York these days to churn out homogenized music. If you need an example, go listen to the latest album from Hank Jr.’s son Sam. Listen to that, and then listen to this, and try to tell me this ain’t more country.
There’s also nothing “woke” about it.
August 30, 2021 @ 9:02 am
I think you are forgetting Nashville, home to generic watered down country as well as the majority of the terrible Contemporary Christian Music genre (which is deeply enmeshed in the pop-country scene). Bottom line is, there is good and bad music in every geographic location on earth so perhaps that is not going to be the indicator of what is good. Funny, a lot of great music is being promoted through soundtracks of various shows and movies out of Hollywood. Also there are massive film production scenes in Georgia and Louisiana so all the generalization kind of breaks down further. And there is a ton of good music coming out of Nashville obviously.
August 30, 2021 @ 8:47 am
They played a week straight in Sturgis. Wow. That is saying something. That is indeed a very different crowd from the self congratulatory, pontificating NPR/ Americana bunch. Now as to the music, not bad at all, very legit. Nice country harmonies too. I think these gals may have recently played the Opry, though i didnt catch the performance. Consider me pleasantly surprised by this, its refreshingly devoid of the pop/hip-hop/club sound that plagues most new acts these days. I believe i just may be officially a fan.
August 30, 2021 @ 9:23 am
These girls are great.
Breath of fresh air.
Their, “You Can Have Him Jolene” video is entertaining.
They’d be a riot on girls night out.
Especially in New Orleans.
Not a bar person, but i do love the energy of the live music scene in Louisiana
August 30, 2021 @ 1:12 pm
To the Ladies of Chapel Hart,
Pay no attention to the spirited discussions on this review. We at SCM get a little wild now & then.
: D
You girls Rock!
You have it – and you know it.
Get out there & own it.
Wishing you the best!
♥️
Stay ladies
August 30, 2021 @ 2:10 pm
My favorite restaurant has CMT on one of their TV’s, that is where I heard Jesus & Alcohol. Loved it, Googled the band, been a fan since. Best of luck to these ladies!
August 30, 2021 @ 7:21 pm
This is a kick-ass album. Not a misstep in it. The most straight-up Country cuts have some modern elements, but they don’t detract from the songs. As for the Country/Rock cuts, well, I like this touch from Glixman better than most Country/Rock I’ve heard produced by Joyce.
Watched a few of their videos, and it looks like the girls trade lead on various songs. Looking forward to having the liner notes to see who’s doing what. And the harmonies are sweet, for sure! Nashville could definitely use them, as long as Nashville’s smart enough not to screw with their recipe.
August 30, 2021 @ 7:41 pm
Oh, and check out their preceding album “Out the Mud”, too. That way you’ll know to buy both of them. 😉
August 31, 2021 @ 8:14 am
…I am annoyed that Apple has a Nelly album perched atop their Country New Releases page, while omitting Chapel Hart from the list. Maybe it comes down to label support, like a distributor purchasing optimum shelf space for their brand of cereal. I doubt it’s about radio viability, as I imagine half the albums on the list will get scant airplay with Nashville format radio. Anyways, the Hart family has a better Country album than most on the list.
August 30, 2021 @ 7:23 pm
Well, I like ’em. Refreshing. And I would say that if I never had a picture of them. Best of luck to them.
August 31, 2021 @ 12:39 am
Breaking through for any artist in any musical genre is hard and different musical genres seem to have more one ethnic group than others. For me, the sad thing is that colour seems to be more the theme of the article than the music. I have never cared about what colour the singer is from nor what their politics is. It is the music I care about? Is it good? I have never heard of them before and they sound like they were from the 80s. They do have a great country sound and are well worth a listen. This site is a great place to be introduced to artists I have never heard before.
August 31, 2021 @ 3:23 am
Hey, why not? It’s come to the point where arguing about the future of country music is like trying to scavenge bits of meat from the skeleton of a cow that was butchered long ago. It really doesn’t matter anymore. Let the “browns and blacks” have it! Plus any other social and political freaks who want to claim it! I caught the last helicopter off the rooftop years ago. I’m now starting a new life as a country music refugee in the land of bluegrass, although I doubt my safe haven will last very long. The “forces of change”, like termites, never sleep.
August 31, 2021 @ 5:28 am
Well, here is exhibit A, King. This comment is not cool, man.
I like the record. All the songs have memorable hooks. Some of it’s not really down my alley but they probably weren’t trying to sing down my alley in the first place, so kudos to ‘em. The songs are well crafted, at any rate, and that’s what I’m here for.
August 31, 2021 @ 10:57 am
If the goal is to get to a point where there is absolutely NOBODY out there who makes a dumbass comment like this and there are ZERO podunk towns left where someone gets away with flying a confederate flag anywhere, then I guess that’s a good goal to have, but not realistic. Sadly, pathetic comments like this will be cited as representative of a much larger portion of the population that they really are, and many of us will continue to argue as if the only 2 options are – there is no “concern” anywhere – and the US hasn’t improved at all, and in 2021 is as bad as its ever been, all conservatives are racist, etc.
August 31, 2021 @ 7:14 am
Well, “the browns and blacks” do have some claim to it as well. As Hank Jr. says, “If it wasn’t for a black guy named Tee Tot, I wouldn’t even be here.” We can’t allow the fact that some in the media and academia truly want to destroy the cultural institution of country music so they can remake it in their own image under the master plan of using it to reshape the political demographics of agrarian American to overlook the fact that many black people are from the country too. Go to Poplarville, Mississippi where these ladies are from, and try to tell me different.
September 2, 2021 @ 3:59 pm
Thanks for this wonderful comment. As a black person, my family is filled with country people. Mostly on my Mother’s side of the family. My Grandmother grew up way out in the country. There’s even a street named after her and her parents. Me and my grandmother love listening to classic country music together! Also, I like your review of Chapel Hart. They sound pretty good.
August 31, 2021 @ 5:05 am
A couple of month ago (in one of the many country music related newsletters) was an article about Chapel Hart.
In the current climate it’s understandable that magazines, web sites, forums, record labels try to find black/bipoc country acts. Or “create” a black country act. Or move some long forgotten soul/blues/dance artist over to Scooter Br…a “country” label.
Or create buzz where there is no buzz.
Back to Chapel Hart.
I don’t hear or “feel” the connection between the trio, the voices, the sound, the songs & the production. The production…oh my…is not traditional…it’s old fashioned & not in a good way. Good for a local act but not for the next career level.
Some might call it “unique”. I call it disjointed. There is no flow. Even the harmony vocals sound uneven.
So far…Chapel Hart are pushing (all) the right buttons. Maybe too country for a record contract on a Nashtrash major label.
Pretty sure Ross Copperman, Ashley Gorley & Shane McAnally will help out with songs & a pop/r’n’b production. A collaboration with Keith Urban here or Kane Brown there might help too.
But don’t forget Breland & Blanco Brown…what’s good for Dierks Bentley & half of Nashville right now can’t be bad for Chapel Hart.
Are Chapel Hart a wet woke & pc dream? No.
Is the trio bad? No.
But the rest is.
August 31, 2021 @ 10:13 am
OlaR,
Is your comment a quote from that article? Or is this a summation of the points it makes? Im pretty sure you are not of the opinion laid out that Chapel Hart needs to be more RnB /Pop.
If indeed that commentary is from someone in the industry, im not surprised. Yes, these girls have recorded actual Country music, unlike what is mostly played on radio. These industry fools are gonna try to make sure none of it ever makes it to radio. Yeah, the only way these gals get to radio is to have them subjected to a McANally makeover. A shame. They are great as-is. And clearly they have the talent and material to make it, but i doubt the industry lets them. Not because of skin color, but the fact that they are ” too old fashioned” in sound. I really hope im wrong though.
August 31, 2021 @ 7:13 am
Sounds great.
The defensiveness from some people about Chapel Hart is inane. There are white people in the country, brown people, black people, and a tiny number of olive and yellow people. Only some of those people in the country can make country music? Please.
There is no white, brown, black, olive, and yellow music. Good music is good music. Good lyrics are good lyrics. Good singing is good singing. Duke Ellington: “There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.” And no, this view doesn’t “erase” music by black musicians. It just erases divisions that politicians and activists love to exploit, and those people are the ones giving this country such a sh*tty vibe.
But I wish everyone could read music. If they did, they’d realize in their guts that something could be learned from everybody, and that everybody is worth a listen.
August 31, 2021 @ 9:29 am
To the Ladies of Chapel Hart,
Just sigh, roll your eyes, and smile.
You girls are the whole package. Stay with the production team you currently have. Your team is pointed in the right direction.
Stay away from Nashville trash who offer to sign you to a bigger deal.
In this case, a bigger (any Nashville machine) would not be better.
September 1, 2021 @ 5:32 am
yeah, this isn’t very good man.
September 2, 2021 @ 8:26 am
It’s okay. A little too much like Gretchen Wilson for me, except without the novelty she had when she was relevant.
Could it be played on the radio? No clue. Haven’t listened to a country music station in years. Good luck to them, though.
January 5, 2022 @ 11:36 am
They’re good! Nice too it! Tks for sharing and I get impressed because they aren’t on Big Spots and “Official Playlists” of diverty. Funny why. Maybe because these one really have Talent coming first of genres, sexual choices or color of the skin.
July 28, 2022 @ 1:11 pm
I just ADORE these ladies! I’m absolutely SICK of the racial issues these days; just wanted to say that it doesn’t matter if they are black or white; the talent within is unmistakable. YGGs!! ????