Album Review – Sarah Gayle Meech – “Easin’ On”

Some give a lot to make sure that actual country music remains a living, breathing, viable part of American life. Some give more than others. As one of the brave souls who soldiers onto Lower Broadway on a weekly basis to play four hour sets at Robert’s Western World, Sarah Gayle Meech is on the very front lines of keeping country music alive and fighting back the waves of corporate encroachment.
For an artist like Sarah Gayle Meech, performance and preservation comes first. This is what has earned her the moniker “Queen of Lower Broadway” here at Saving Country Music if nowhere else. But this weekly commitment along with having to deal with a divorce and the death of her best friend created a nine year delay between the release of studio albums for Meech.
Patience is rewarded with the release of Sarah Gayle Meech’s new album Easin’ On that takes her trials and tribulations, and puts them into heartfelt songs that evidence an uncommon and unique approach to what is otherwise traditional country music. With lush strings arrangements contrasting with steel guitar and chest-pounding Outlaw odes, Easin’ On is not like any other country record you’ll hear in 2024 or any other time.
Easin’ On is an album about not falling into a rut, whether it’s in a relationship, or in life in general. Often the most arduous and scary tasks we undertake in life, and most difficult decisions we make turn out to be the most important, and the ones we’re most grateful for later on. If you don’t make those conversions, you never evolve. Sharing these philosophies isn’t wholly original, but it’s the way Meech weaves these messages among melodic moments that allows Easin’ On to open pathways in the brain to not just hear the message, but listen to it.

To be frank, during your first trip through the album, you may wonder if it’s right for you. The spirited string arrangements in the opening song “Time for a Change” and the third song “Love Me” may make you wonder if this record might be a little too schmaltzy for your sensibilities, even if Meech’s sleeves of tattoos and the title track sandwiched in between remind you more of the music you might hear at a biker rally.
But all of this is what makes Easin’ On not just another country album. Meech and co-producer Shawn Byrne find an interesting moment in country history to be inspired from. They tap into a time in the late 80s when the overproduction of the Countrypolitan era was slowly being phased out but still held an appeal with older listeners, and the ’90s country sound of hadn’t been adopted in full form just yet.
Sarah Gayle Meech’s songs fits so well in this in-between era due to her understanding and knack for melody that you rarely find from the hardcore honky tonk crowd. Whether it’s how the melody of “Time For a Change” reminds you of another Gayle (Crystal Gayle), or in the Outlaw half-time “Forget About Me” where both the steel guitar and lead guitar stick right to the melody and sell it to your ear, Easin’ On evidences a purpose and care behind each composition to make the music feel loved.
There are other country performers who’ve used Lower Broadway only as a stepping stone, or avoided the corridor entirely on their way to greater stardom. But for a decade, Sarah Gayle Meech has held court in the true epicenter and proving ground for country music, creating a legacy all of her own, and standing up for country music in a place where standing for country is most important.
Easin’ On shows Sarah Gayle Meech’s knowledge of and prowess with country music that she’s mastered over the many years and many hours of performing it, while helping to keep it vital in new, original songs.
1 3/4 Guns Up (8/10)
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Purchase from Sarah Gayle Meech
May 6, 2024 @ 12:23 pm
My take, is the Sarah Meech on the records you hear, is focused on finding a unique sound, and she’s a risk taker.
In person at Robert’s, its another animal entirely. The Robert’s shows are Honky- Tonk shows. She’s got John England and Mark Miller playing those live gigs with her and it’s gonna swing and twang, with them aboard. This isn’t a bad thing at all. If you understand the rules of Robert’s, Jesse Lee prefers his artists play the stuff before 1980, and maybe occasionally some originals. So a Robert’s set by design will be different from what the artist might record.
Sarah remains a great entertainer.
May 6, 2024 @ 1:00 pm
I think this is right. When you spend so much time on the stage playing country, you start to crave the possibilities of what you can do in the studio to take all this knowledge you’ve accrued and apply it to your original music. You can’t fit a string section on the stage at Robert’s, so you might as well do so in the recorded context. We’ve seen this same exploration of eras from Joshua Hedley.
May 6, 2024 @ 12:35 pm
Once again, you hit the nail on the head. I listed to this album, and I thought late ’80s.
I found the album interesting, but not for me. Definitely late ’80s.
May 6, 2024 @ 5:45 pm
Would this have been considered country pop back in the day?
May 6, 2024 @ 8:03 pm
The songs with the string arrangements, sure. Just like some of the women who are recreating Patsy Cline, it was pop country of the era. This album also has a lot of stuff you would probably categorize as Outlaw too, so you can’t really label it as all one thing.
May 8, 2024 @ 8:22 am
The women recreating Patsy Cline sounds or the several men who’ve done countrypolitan – All that is some form of country pop of the past period And it had its haters at the time, and now we think of it all as very classic sounding.
I’m so psyched about this album, been waiting for one from her for a long time
May 7, 2024 @ 4:44 am
Excellent
May 7, 2024 @ 6:35 am
Glad to see Shawn Byrne getting props. Wonderful guy.
*Disclaimer: Shawn produced and played on my son’s latest EP.
May 7, 2024 @ 7:02 am
I’d never heard of Sarah before this review, but what I just sampled of this album sounds great. I think she sounds a lot like Barbara Mandrell, which is never a bad thing.
May 7, 2024 @ 7:45 am
RebJas, I thought kind of the same thing. I thought of the Mandrells or Sylvia.
May 7, 2024 @ 8:55 am
Steel guitar on Trouble With Me is gorgeous.
I listened to the whole album twice & put multiple songs on playlists.
Thanks for the review.
May 7, 2024 @ 11:23 am
So for the past few years I’ve been listening to this genre of electronic music called Synthwave, the style itself is heavily influenced by the pop music of the 1980’s. The two more known artists I’ve been listening to on Synthwave are Nina Boldt and The Midnight. While I love the genre and the songs I’ve been hearing, I couldn’t help but wonder how Country Music would sound like if it had its own version of Synthwave.
There’s not a doubt in my mind that it would’ve been heavily influenced by both the Urban Cowboy and 90’s Country sound, and I think this album here could be a good template for Country Singers to build on if they were to create their answer to Synthwave.
May 7, 2024 @ 1:55 pm
You might enjoy checking out Hyperbubble’s “Cowgirls and Synthesizers.”
May 8, 2024 @ 8:26 am
I’m actually a bit clueless about what synthwave was but I’ve been exploring gothic country/dark Americana a lot and there’s a current band called Bonnie and the Mere Mortals which does various forms of goth sounds, some of them straight from New Wave ’80s, but does it with a pretty good country vocal. It’s a fun blend of the two unlikely sounds.
They are awesome.
May 8, 2024 @ 8:50 am
Two Synthwave acts I recommend, Nina Boldt (NINA) and The Midnight, in my opinion those two are the shining example of what makes Synthwave.
Albums I recommend are:
NINA: Sleepwalking, Synthian, Scala Hearts
The Midnight: Self-Titled EP, Endless Summer, and Monsters
May 7, 2024 @ 3:17 pm
She sounds as tacky as her tattoos, but probably is a very nice person.
May 8, 2024 @ 8:24 am
I’m sure somebody reached out and appointed you as the man in charge of other people’s appearance. It must feel really important to be so important.
May 9, 2024 @ 6:36 am
You do know what ‘an opinion’ is?
May 8, 2024 @ 8:20 am
She is definitely in the same vein as Elle King, “Tattooed Badass Chick”, which is fine.
However, Elle King started her career trying to be the next Amy Winehouse and slowly drifted towards country, where as Sarah seems to fully entrenched in Country music and not pandering for a new audience.
May 9, 2024 @ 1:32 am
They always go pop.
May 9, 2024 @ 7:32 am
Tell me you have no clue what you’re talking about, and have no idea who Sarah Gayle Meech is in as few words as possible.
You’re dumb, uninformed, blow in and out of the comments section to leave shitty comments and disrupt the conversation has become beyond tiresome.
Contribute, or move on.
May 9, 2024 @ 7:29 am
She is the same as Elle King because she has tattoos? Does that mean Cody Johnson is also in the same vein as Elle King because he has tattoos?
There are a lot of folks judging with their eyes in this comments section.
May 8, 2024 @ 9:33 am
No offense JPalmer, but having had the most unfortunate displeasure of seeing Elle King perform live, I can comfortably state that Sarah Gayle Meech is NOTHING like her. King is way over the top vulgar, in general has a disdain for more straight laced people, and is a drunk. She is quite frankly a trainwreck and the only thing about her remotely country is she can play banjo.
Sarah Gayle Meech might have some tats, and could no doubt hold her own talking with the boys, but seriously, she’s polite, respectful, charming. and represents traditional country very well. She a terrific honky- tonk performer and has some gorgeous original songs. Maybe you were just comparing the appearance here, but trust me She has 10x more class than Elle King ever will. You can take that to the bank!
May 8, 2024 @ 12:50 pm
Fair Enough, but her Aesthetic and lyrics seem similar….
May 8, 2024 @ 10:05 am
Speaking of people who’ve been a good while in between albums.. just saw DittyTV announce that Kielly Connell (SCM’s song of the year in 2020 or 21) has a full length album coming out in July. I am absolutely overjoyed about that one too
May 8, 2024 @ 9:11 pm
Neither track is working for me at all. Bloozy faux outlaw is an instant turrnoff and I hate the sonic and stylistic signposts on the other one. Something about her voice is off too, her pronunciation and kind of a thin tone? To cap it off her visual aesthetic is awful. The whole package is doing the wrong things. No interest in digging deeper.
May 10, 2024 @ 2:08 pm
Just discovered her music today, and am especially impressed with her song “Foolish”, in my mind one of the most powerful songs. Consider it, vocalwise to be a hybrid of Allison Moore, Lucinda Williams and Lynn Miles.