The Western Kentucky singer-songwriter S.G. Goodman may be the best writer of Southern Gothic songs since Lucinda Williams first brought her genius to the forefront in the ‘90s. Goodman’s distinctive Kentucky drawl also gives us one of those singular voices. Few write and sing with the combination of vivid detail, empathy, and relativity. Planting By Signs is Goodman’s third album in a recording career that began in 2017.
Much has transpired in Goodman’s life since the release of Teeth Marks in 2022, including the loss of her dog and her mentor, Mike Harmon, and, on the positive side, reconciling with her longtime collaborator and guitarist, Matthew Rowan, after the two had become estranged in 2021. Rowan and Drew Vandenberg, along with Goodman, are the co-producers here. This somewhat disguised concept album explores themes of love, loss, and reconciliation through the lens of the rural practice of planting according to the signs of the moon. In her childhood, it was about planting a garden, getting a haircut, or weaning a baby, all about timing. Goodman finds solace and meaning in this concept that opposes the tech-obsessed, greedy, profit-driven mechanisms surrounding us.
The core band is Goodman on vocals, guitar, and keys; Rowan on vocals, guitars, keys, and bass; Matt Pence on drums; and Craig Burletic on bass, with various guests on select tracks. The punchy, seesaw-like “Satellite” addresses this obsession with technology. The lyrical juxtaposition of “wishing on a satellite” and “look what it’s done to you” serves as a commentary on the tendency to overlook the signs of nature. She marries the concept of the zodiac and planting by the signs of the moon in “Fire Sign” with its indelible lines “Oh who’s been living like the sun don’t shine / On the same dog’s ass every day.” Eddie Dunlap’s pedal steel adds a haunting quality here and on the title track. “I Can See the Devil,” with its refrain “keep on walking in the sunshine,” reflects the resilience and indomitable spirit of those she grew up with in those Kentucky ‘hollers.’
In the standout “Snapping Turtle,” Goodman ruminates on childhood and early adulthood memories that have been populating her dreams, leading to an increase in therapy sessions lately. The enduring chorus “Oo small town is where my mind gets stuck” wraps around such ideas as a farm kid learning to drive before legal age and low-down kids huddled around a small snapping turtle beating it with a stick. She mourns her lost friend who helped her through hard times. In “Michael Told Me,” where it’s possible not to be jolted by the opening line, “Heard I love you from Los Angeles” three times. Los Angeles gets our attention these days.
She is scarily intimate in “Solitaire,” buffed by Rowan’s harmonies and finger-picked guitar, equating the four types of cards to the four seasons, and how they relate to the human instinct to do the best with what we’ve been dealt. She sings ‘I’m in love” incessantly in the track of the same name, but somehow sarcasm creeps in, even based on her vocal tone, which is far more melancholy than gleeful. On the other hand, a more animated persona emerges in the space between a junk yard and the mountain air. In “Nature’s Child,” sung with teeming harmonies from Bonnie “Prince” Billy with guest guitar from Rich Ruth and baritone guitar from Zak Riles. There’s an ethereal, spooky tone to “Heat Lightning” (‘our love is a sky of heat lightning’) abutted by the voices of Clyde Charles, Mary Overby, and Myrtle Turner.
Yet, the must-hear track of all is the title track, a sublime two-part harmony between Goodman and Rowan as they sing her original, which sounds like an old southern gospel hymn. You may easily find yourself singing this lofty refrain – “The sun is sinking/In the cold dark night/Planting my love according to the signs.” If you’d made it this far, you’ll wade through the nine-minute narrative of “Heaven Song” as she processes the death of her dog and friend, Michael, in a tune she began writing after taking psychedelic mushrooms. It’s stock full of stunning imagery, and the indelible chorus “Maybe If I see it, then I’ll want it.” As captivating and hypnotic as it is, the album may have been even stronger if it had ended with the title track, but Goodman loves the long narrative, a gifted bonus. All told, the album is unforgettable on so many dimensions.
