Album Review – Natalie Hemby’s “Puxico”
In the last few years, songwriters of a female persuasion have been setting the creative pace in country’s mainstream. In 2016 it was Lori McKenna who previously spent years contributing songs to major performers eventually breaking out with her own solo release The Bird & The Rifle on her way to a Grammy nomination, while her self-penned #1 single for Tim McGraw “Humble & Kind” walked away with the CMA’s Song of the Year.
So you better be paying attention when one of these songwriters gets a chance to do something on their own for a change. If you regularly find yourself with your nose buried in the liner notes of mainstream albums, chances are you’ve seen the name Natalie Hemby before. Big swaths of the track lists from Miranda Lambert, Sunny Sweeney, and Little Big Town records have Hemby’s name showcased in plurality, which speaks to just how positively her performing peers receive her material.
But of course anyone who’s hung around Music Row long enough will ultimately end up with a few blemishes on their songwriting record, if not some skeletons in their closet. Not even the immaculate Chris Stapleton graduated from his years of writing on The Row without a few lame Luke Bryan cuts lingering on his Wikipedia page for rednecks to rip him apart for. How Natalie Hemby sat in a room with Barry Dean and Luke Laird, and didn’t use her veto power to 86 that godawful “motorboatin'” reference in Little Big Town’s “Pontoon” is beyond me. But if she had, we probably would have never heard the song because that’s about all it had going for it.
Most anyone who’s worked on Music Row is going to have some warts in their portfolio, but they’re also going to have the respect and the name recognition of their peers in the industry to have some doors opened for them, especially if they’ve written songs like Miranda Lambert’s “White Liar.” Sometimes it takes years, even decades for those opportunities to emerge. That’s how long it took for the first solo releases from Chris Stapleton and Lori McKenna, and so it has gone for Natalie Hemby.
Whether this should be considered Hemby’s big breakout moment as a solo artist, or just the record she’s always wanted to make and be damned if anyone else pays attention, it’s hard to say. Or perhaps it’s a little bit of both. She didn’t choose the title Puxico for the way it popped for focus group audiences. It’s the name of her less than 1,000 population hometown in southeastern Missouri that sets the scene for an album that feels devoutly personal, humble in approach, and eager to express things a professional songwriter just can’t with total fulfillment through the voices of others.
Like so much of the material from non-male songwriters in the mainstream, Puxico meanders through a small town perspective, sometimes lovingly, sometimes frustratingly, but always authentically when it comes to Natalie Hemby’s case. “Time Honored Tradition” sets the record off with a folky, stripped-down country vibe that immediately lets you know this isn’t going to be a repository for Hemby’s commercial material that didn’t sell, but the record she’s always wanted to make. Puxico IS Natalie Hemby—her places, her people, her stories and perspective set to rhythm and melody like a breathing, beating memory.
As you can imagine, the songwriting is pretty spot on throughout, with the 9-track record hitting high points with the gorgeous “Cairo, IL,”—inspired by a location not too far from Puxico. “Ferris Wheel” may have not made it as the title track, but it does comprise the album artwork, and a wise perspective about the cycles of life from dream to achievement. “Worn” also is guided by great perspective, while “This Town Still Talks About You” is able to touch on the popular small town perspective theme in songwriting without feeling trite. Sure you can run down Hemby’s list of songwriting credits and find something to not like, but that shouldn’t obscure the fact that her material has always been some of the better stuff in the mainstream.
Don’t be surprised to hear a little steel guitar drifting in and out on Puxico, even though it’s probably fair to label this album a bit more folk than country. The album’s failing though, and it has one, is that the production relied a little bit too much on a chorus/reverb concoction on the vocal track and final mix to where it’s just a little too wet to really engage the ear like you want it to.
The words of Puxico are what you show up for, but at times it’s really hard to follow along with the story for all the billowy effects on Hemby’s voice. It also allows the record to begin to veer into almost a 90’s adult contemporary sound in the way all the edges are smoothed off in attempt to instill it with the warmth of memories. Stripped down and space-filled is one thing, and that part of the Puxico production is an asset to the effort. This album just needed to be dried out a bit for the listener to really be able to connect to these songs.
The good news is the underlying songs are great themselves. This record wasn’t Natalie Hemby’s bid for a spot in the mainstream’s stable of arena-level performing artists, this was an assemblage of what feels like her most heartfelt material compiled over years, with each song holding a deep importance, and none included that doesn’t, and each conveying an expression that is dependent on the others, however subtly, to paint a picture that exists in her mind so wound up in memory and emotion she feels an imperative to share it. Puxico is for Natalie Hemby, but as is often the case with a personal work, the result was something that resonates personally for others as well.
1 3/4 Guns Up (8/10)
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January 16, 2017 @ 9:29 am
I streamed this on First Listen last week — just lovely. Sweet tunes and thoughtful lyrics. 🙂 Although Natalie’s voice actually reminded me a bit of Kacey Musgraves and Maren Morris in places, I would agree that the Lori McKenna comparison is apt regarding the songwriting.
January 16, 2017 @ 9:34 am
I did enjoy the two samples provided, they are good songs. If you hadn’t mentioned the chorus effect I would not have thought it was a negative thing. It fits time honored tradition ok, but then again in the next song, I think if the whole album is recorded in this manner it may wear on you especially the high notes.
Only thing is these do sound to me like little big town, or maybe lady antebellum more closely. I don’t really have a whole lot to go on with that statement but i’ve heard a few songs by each of them. Wait you know what it sounds like the soundtrack to hallmark movie or Christian country music movie, you know what I’m talking about. Preachers daughter wants to be country music star ect…
I’ll listen to whole album though, I think it definitely deserves some attention.
January 16, 2017 @ 10:24 am
I can’t wait to pick this up.
The Bootheel of Missouri has its own culture.
It’s where the Midwest meets the Old South.
I spent years of my life traveling between St. Louis, where I was born and Memphis, where we moved when I was in first grade (1963).
I remember riding in the car when I was a very young boy and seeing blacks picking cotton the old way, so to speak.
And then when we got to Memphis, everyone talked funny and it was like a different world.
I also remember the White and Colored water fountains, rest rooms and even my pediatrician’s waiting room (I’m sure “waiting” was an accurate term as it related to the Colored waiting room).
There were religious transitions, as well.
St. Louis had a very Catholic populace, while Memphis had quite a bit of Baptists and other Protestants.
The difference was palpable.
Memphis has large Catholic and Jewish constituencies, but there was, and is, a Protestant culture which, at some levels of the social structure, is fairly exclusive.
But the Bootheel is where the 2 distinct cultures meet and start to change, depending on which direction you are going.
January 16, 2017 @ 12:02 pm
Wow. I did not see “Cairo, IL” coming. The year has just started, but that is the song to beat for me…
January 16, 2017 @ 12:46 pm
I would agree. Had the same impact on me as “Dry Up or Drown” from Evan Webb and the Rural Route Ramblers from this same time last year, and from a similar part of the country. Leader in the clubhouse.
January 16, 2017 @ 1:20 pm
I liked this album, but I had the same problem with it I had with Miranda’s. The production is basically the same all the way through, and slow, and it causes one song to blend into the other. Honestly, in many ways this is the slightly less mainstream, slightly better written, version of TWOTW. That does make it a pretty great album though.
January 16, 2017 @ 1:45 pm
This one suffers to me from the same thing as Jason Bolands last album, the Ryan Scott Travis album, and several other recent ones to me. The vocals sit to much. Not quite buried but still low enough in the mix to bug me. Country is a vocal/lyrics music. Does me no good to listen to music with a great story if I can’t hear or understand it.
January 16, 2017 @ 2:26 pm
I hear some Gillian Welch combined with a touch of Neko Case in Cairo Illinois. I mean it as a complement. It’s a great song with a haunting ethereal melody made prettier with the steel guitar. Her voice really speaks here. Time honored tradition immediately spoke to me with the chugging johnny cash sun records train beat and the touch of echo behind the guitar. Once again I hear a style that evokes Gillian Welch , particularly in the lyrics. Consensus: Excellent material.
January 16, 2017 @ 4:16 pm
The music sounded pretty good but I couldn’t understand a word she said.
January 16, 2017 @ 5:33 pm
I’m having a hard time getting into this album. I’ve given it one spin all the way through, and have gone back a couple of times. Granted I’m neck deep in other music right now, so I probably haven’t given it a fair enough shake.
Not saying anything negative, just that it didn’t grab like it has many. For *me* it just sort of lilted and meandered along for nine tracks. I plan on giving it my full attention at some point, but right now, it’s just sort of meh.
January 16, 2017 @ 5:45 pm
Won’t let me watch/listen, so no comment on the tunes.
January 16, 2017 @ 9:45 pm
The Chris Stapleton tag is spelled Chirs – just FYI
January 16, 2017 @ 9:51 pm
I do see some similarities with the Kacey Musgraves vocal comparisons. I could envision Kacey covering Ferris Wheel and Worn easily. Probably would be a good soundtrack for a spring roadtrip, sort of a dreamy “country shoegaze” sound. The songs here seem ok, some nice steel guitar on these tunes, thanks for the (p)review.
January 17, 2017 @ 6:52 pm
By the way Trigger, this only appears to be available on iTunes and Amazon, I don’t see it on CD or LP, do you?
January 18, 2017 @ 1:37 pm
I love the record. I heard Natalie perform several of these songs at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville. There were times I heard a Mary Chapin-Carpenter/Maren Morris/Kacey Musgraves feel to some of the songs. Her voice was just as good as anyone being played on radio and the face that she writes her own material makes it even better. Let’s hope her path of success matches Lori McKenna.