KIM RICHEY : EDGELAND

1. The Red Line
2. Chase Wild Horses
3. Leaving Song (with Pat McLaughlin)
4. Pin A Rose
5. High Time
6. The Get Together (with Mando Saenz)
7. Can't Let You Go
8. I Tried
9. Black Trees
10. Your Dear John
11. Not For Money Or Love
12. Whistle On Occasion (with chuck Prophet)

Label : Yep Roc Records

Release Date : March 30, 2018

Length : 42:39

Review (AllMusic) : Edgeland is a term describing the area between the city and country, a description that also suits Kim Richey's music. Ever since her eponymous debut in 1995, Richey has carved out a niche that incorporates deep Americana roots -- her affection for folk rivals her affection for country -- and an urbane sense of songcraft, but this 2018 album, her first in five years, accentuates how she doesn't quite belong to either world. This is to her benefit. Edgeland is a deeply felt, sharply rendered collection of songs that belong to an America that exists just outside the view of the mainstream. That's as true for the subjects of Richey's songs as her music, which has strains of rolling folk, snappy country-rock, and jangling guitar pop. Perhaps guest Robyn Hitchcock is responsible for those ringing guitars, but Edgeland is filled with guests who help Richey navigate the distance between the downtown and the backwoods, including Pat McLaughlin, Mando Saenz, and Chuck Prophet, who also co-wrote four songs. Such collaboration is instrumental to the success of Edgeland, helping it feel like something more than a collection of sharp songs: it lends the album a sense of warmth and community, which gives it a vibe that's distinct from the other fine albums Richey has released over the years.

Review (PopMatters) : Kim Richey turned 60 more than a year ago. On her eighth studio album, she's at that awkward age; too old to sing about young love, too young to give up on romance. She sees the repeating patterns in life's journeys and now can tell the difference between the headlamp of a train running down the track from a light at the end of the tunnel. Richey understands that not all promises need to be spoken to be broken and that walking away doesn't mean always mean leaving for good. She wears her hard-earned wisdom like a rose upon her chest. A medal implies bravery. Richey tries but admits weaknesses and failures. The 12 well-crafted self-penned songs on her latest release are deceptively simple. They bear an initial resemblance to conventional country folk. However, the initial likeness is misleading. What appears to be conventional actually subverts predictable songwriting. Consider a track such as "Not for Money or Love" about a man who returns from war to marry and have a child dies in a mining accident before the kid is born. Richey sees the big picture. Everybody needs somebody, but that doesn't mean relationships work out despite the best of intentions and the feelings of love. Stuff happens. Just existing means living on the edge and even the strongest wings won't stop one from eventually falling. Richey plays her acoustic guitar with an unpretentious air that keeps the melodies clean. Producer (and bass player, pianist) Brad Jones creates nuanced arrangements He employs some of Nashville's best studio talent including Jerry Roe and Josh Hunt on drums and a host of multi-instrumentalists including Pat McLaughlin, Dan Dugmore, Pat Sansone, Doug Lancio, Chris Carmichael, and Dan Cohen on pedal and lap steel, mandolin, violin, bouzouki, strings, electric banjo, resonator and such, as well as guest stars Chuck Prophet and Robyn Hitchcock on guitar. Despite the number of players used on the album, most songs just feature four instrumentalists to keep the sound tight. Regarding vocals, Richey often mixes hers with a male voice to create a harmony that adds another level of meaning to a track. For example, McLaughlin matches her note for not on "The Leaving Song" so when the lyrics say "This ain't no leaving song / You ain't done nothing wrong" the listener understands the opposite is true. Both members of the couple are saying, "It's not you, it's me" in code to make the breakup easier, but they are breaking up. The same is true on "Whistle on Occasion" where Richey and Chuck Prophet sing and strum as one. The two express their need for each other while acknowledging their individuality. Will they stay together or separate is anybody's guess. The fact that they share the same sentiments and mindset doesn't guarantee what will happen next. The world continues to turn. Tomorrow is another day. Because Richey is best known as a songwriter and collaborator who has worked with notables such as Ryan Adams, Trisha Yearwood, Jason Isbell, Rodney Crowell, and Reba McEntire, there's a temptation to hear these songs as demos for a bigger act to the charts. That would be a mistake. While someone such as Garth Brooks could take a song like "Chase Wild Horses" to the top ten, he wouldn't be able to improve on the original version here. Richey and company take her narrators as far as they can go-the edgeland where the dead-end road and trail of tears meet. Standing on the brink is the best one can do. Richey reports on what she finds there.

Review (FolkRadio) : Gearing up for a UK tour supporting Gretchen Peters, Edgeland is Kim Richey's eighth album, a follow-up to her 2013 Thorn In My Heart that finds her working in Nashville with producer Brad Jones and a bunch of seasoned studio hands that include Dan Dugmore, Pat McLaughlin, Chuck Prophet and Robyn Hitchcock. It's also very much a collaborative affair in terms of the writing, Richey taking only one solo credit with the twilight and starry skies atmospherics of the mellotron and keyboards-based ballad Black Trees. With Chuck Prophet on guitar, Doug Lancio on resonator and Chris Carmichael providing fiddle, the album opens in punchy form with the chiming train song swagger and circling riffs of The Red Line, presumably a reference to the Boston rapid transit line. The pace is maintained for the done-running, changed my ways themed Chase Wild Horses, co-penned with Al Anderson and McLaughlin, the latter on mandolin and bouzouki. The first of four Prophet writing collaborations, Leaving Song, a duet with McLaughlin, has a good-time bluesy lope, Dan Cohen handling electric banjo and Pat Sansone bolstering the drive on resonator. Again co-penned with Prophet, the mid-tempo, domestic abuse-themed Pin A Rose also has a bluesy tone to its country groove, although tempered here with instrumentation that includes bouzouki, slide, banjo and electric sitar and has, at times, vague echoes of The Waterboys. I suspect it's also Prophet who brings the Tom Petty influence in the chiming guitar and tumbling chords of their third co-write, Can't Let You Go. A song about getting your shit back together and doing something, High Time, written with Mando Saenz and featuring puttering percussion from Brad Jones with Gareth Dunlop providing harmony as well as the guitar solo bridge, is a gentle train time country chugger. Meanwhile, co-writer Saenz takes the duet role on The Get Together, its dreamy, fluid melody rolling on Dugmore's pedal steel and Chris Carmichael's strings with Jones giving it a jazzy tweak on vibraphone. I Tried chugs pleasantly along without making any waves while Your Dear John, co-written by Jenny Queen, the album's only female co-writer, is a quietly reflective number that puts a spin on the topic ( "if I don't read your letter, you can't make me your dear John"), the melancholia coloured by cello and wistful recorders. The last of the shared credits belongs to Australian songwriter Harry Hookey on Not For Money Or Love, a slow sway unfulfilled dreams/back home from the war number firmly evocative of The Band's bucolic post-bellum moods with Dugmore's keening pedal steel augmented by violin and harmonium. It ends with the last of the Prophet collaborations, duetting and playing both guitar and Casio keyboard on the whimsical, bubbly fingerpicked Whistle On Occasion, its simple acoustic arrangement and affirming positivity leaving things on a mellow upbeat note. Back in 1996 Richey earned a Grammy nomination for writing Trisha Yearwood hit Believe Me Baby (I Lied), it's about time she had another, this time for her own album.