Sometimes our obsession with the ‘next big thing’ or newer wave of singer-songwriters in Americana has us overlooking the stalwarts that shaped the genre. This is not to suggest that Kim Richey has been invisible. On the contrary, her harmonies are in so much demand that she shows up on countless albums. Yet, as a solo artist, she takes her time between records. Her last album, 2020’s A Long Way Back: The Songs of Glimmer, was a reimagining, and her last full effort before that was her 2023 Thorn In My Heart. Her stature, though perhaps not top-of-mind for many, has remained undiminished, and this new collection of ten songs on Every New Beginning, her tenth album, strongly reinforces her artistry – her soothing voice and precise articulation, rhyming couplets, singalong hooks, keen observations, and relatable emotional fare.
The album is produced by longtime collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Doug Lancio (Patty Griffin, John Hiatt, Gretchen Peters), with a huge assist on a couple of tracks from Aaron Lee Tasjan. She mostly works with a core band of familiar musicians – Lancio, keyboardist Dan Mitchell, bassist Lex Price, and drummer Neilson Hubbard while writing with a wide cast of co-writers.
You may have already heard the single “Joy Rider” about this kid in the East Nashville neighborhood she shares with her co-writer Tasjan. This non-stop mini-biker showed up like clockwork, even during the pandemic. Here’s just one verse that attests to Richey’s knack for simple and effective rhyming lines – “He don’t need no leather jacket/No bubble gum machine/The kid loves to make a racket/He knows how to make an engine sing.” The indie-rock-like accompaniment fits right in: a cyclical piano melody that evokes the imagery so well. Similarly, single and opener “Chapel Avenue” (with Don Henry) is rife with generational nostalgia – flashbacks of skateboards, lemonade stands, pool parties, and 4th of July parades.
The other songs mostly traverse emotional turf. “Goodbye Ohio” (with Jamie O’Hara and John Hadley) is a paean to her native state, capturing the grief of leaving both a home and lover behind while knowing that it was time to move on. Mitchell’s piano and B3 effectively set the melancholy mood as Richey’s voice soars, expressing her bitter goodbye, her emotions swirling like the B3’s Leslie. “A Way Around” (with Tasjan and Brian Wright) speaks to retreating to one’s favorite sad songs to find comfort and shake out of a rut. The opening two lines set the scene so succinctly and effectively – “You’ve been staying up way too late/Talking in circles til the ashtray’s full.” And in the infectious singalong chorus she relates directly to the listener, saying that she knows that same feeling exactly. “Feel This Way” (with Jay Knowles) is on the same emotional plane, delving into heartbreak and breaking down such cliches as ‘time heals all wounds’ and “They say one day I’ll ‘look back and laugh’.” She drives the feeling home, repeating the line “It hurts like it’s always gonna feel this way” no less than ten times. Lancio is the bright spot with a brief but poignant electric guitar spot, while Richey’s vocal evokes Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis.
Richey taps into older songs that she never recorded until now with the requisite breakup song “The World Is Flat” (with Peter-John Vettese), her band supplying rather unique instrumentation with flugelhorn, mellotron, pump organ, and octave 12 guitars in the mix. It has far more literate, drawn-out descriptive verses than the George Jones classic, “The Grand Tour,” but ends in a similar place, reaching the end only to discover that ‘the world is flat.’
“Floating On the Surface” (with Roger Nichols) is a demo take, where Nichols plays all the instruments, and Richey adds percussion in tune steeped in blissful love, while “Come Back to Me” (with Ashley Campbell) is a dreamy, evocative yearning tune. Richey leaves us on an optimistic note with the Beatles-esque closer “Moment in the Sun” (with Mando Saenz). While it may seem like a heavy dose of sad songs, you’ll likely relate to the emotions, admire the songcraft, find comfort in her soothing vocals, and, yes, find these tunes lingering in your head for days. Richey delivers superb songcraft, as top-shelf as any album she has made.
