Sparky's Neighborhood

****1/2

For some time Teea Goans has remained one to watch, her emotive music gaining power with each passing release, and here on her fifth album in a little over ten years, the identity of Ms Goans seems more defined and whole than ever. In the past she has relied on songs from the pens of established country tunesmiths, but this time she has teamed up with producer/songwriter Jim ‘Moose’ Brown, to co-write the ten songs, the pair bringing in Don Sampson and James LeBlanc for Just Another Day and Story Telling Time, respectively. Sticking to her dyed-in-the-wool traditional country styling she has given us an album of hard luck and hard-won perspective, a fitting tribute to her tenacity. She recognises that life knocks us all around sometimes, and it’s important to display that wear and tear proudly. Teea deserves the type of following that has allowed other like-minded country traditionalists such as Patty Loveless, Reba McEntire and Tammy Wynette the long-standing success and influence they have had. Teea’s voice possesses a raw soul and her songwriting is endlessly honest. Her range is complete from an emotional conversational delivery through to a songbird soar. Smoky country-soul, catchy two-steppers and heart-wrenching break-up sagas, all in a rich twangy voice that’s very much her own. Make your own comparisons and draw your own conclusions but be sure to take note of an artist in her prime.

The album’s true meaning lies in the title, as Teea accomplishes her goal of inviting us all over the wide and varied country music landscape that is somehow familiar and comforting. A straightforward and passionate exercise in traditional country music archaeology. Don’t take this to mean that her music is old-fashioned, this album is as fresh as the morning dew as she manages to reach a country nerve with her credible lyrics and the exceptional musical arrangements. Full credit should be given to producer Brown who plays various guitars, keyboards and percussion and adds background vocals assisted at times by Jenee Fleenor (fiddle, mandolin), Greg Morrow, Tommy Harden (drums), Jimmie Lee Sloas (bass), Mike Johnson, Dan Dugmore (pedal steel), Josh Brown, Rob McNelley, Tom Bukovac (electric guitar) and Carl Minor (acoustic guitar, mandolin). Inspired by a road trip, Enjoy The View is a gorgeous, evocative piece of work that shows off an impressive skillset as Teea invites us to slow down and don’t miss out on the beauty that’s all around us. Deploying the standard tools of country, like mandolin, fiddle and guitars in interesting ways, she is joined by Carl Jackson and Larry Cordle on the engaging chorus. Vince Gill adds ethereal background vocals to the dreamy, swirling That’s What I Know. Coated in a sheen of delicate mandolin, swooning pedal steel and honeyed, whispered vocals, this feels much like a journey to the furthest part of our hopes and dreams for a life without fear, confusing information and needless anger and reprisals.

There’s More To Me chugs along a more traditional track to a two-stepping rhythmic beat as Teea lays out her love of the simple things in life, such as a good ol’ country song and worn out jeans. Jenee Fleenor’s fiddle drives The Detour down a country backroad as the lyrics retell the story of an old man in a one-horse town, whose life became satisfying because of the detours … a beguiling song of life lessons in a brief three-minutes. Untangled is a change in tack to a more sweeping, elegiac style. Driven by a power arrangement, her voice sings of needing to escape a controlling relationship over a simple piano opening that builds and builds into an emotional plea of letting go. There’s a deep-felt poignancy to Just Another Day, a desolate piano ballad with spare imagery highlighting the pain of loss and daring to hope again. Story Telling Time is a   classic country-soul ballad, delivered with soulfulness and sincerity over a Memphis-style arrangement of B3 organ, Wurlitzer electric piano and striking electric guitar. She further demonstrates her versatility with the torchy tones of What’s A Girl To Do, evoking images of a smoky nightclub as another let-down leads to expectations, falling short, accepting reality, and maybe moving on. This is definitely an album to cherish. One that demonstrates that Teea Goans is one of, if not the finest ‘country’ vocalist currently working in Nashville, and it’s about time that the country music establishment opened up their blinkered eyes and embraced this multi-talented and beautiful lady.

www.teeagoans.com

September 2021