Brooklyn Vegan: Notable Releases of the Week

Putting your own spin on standards/traditionals/other people’s songs has been part of country music forever, and John Prine protégé Kelsey Waldon continues that tradition with her new album There’s Always A Song, released on the late Prine’s Oh Boy Records. Every song on here has been in the country canon for decades, but calling it a “covers album” undersells it. Kelsey takes these time-tested songs and she brings them into the modern world, breathing new life into them and making them her own. If you didn’t know any better, you might just think these were originals, and even if you have heard others sing them, I think it’s fair to say you haven’t heard them quite like this. Adding to the appeal, Kelsey brings in some talented friends, including Margo Price, Amanda Shires, S.G. Goodman, and 49 Winchester’s Isaac Gibson, who are all in the same alt-friendly country galaxy as Kelsey herself. “These songs are deep. They were here long before me, and they will be here long after I’m gone, after any of us are here,” Kelsey says. “It’s like they live in some kind of universe that just survives forever. These songs know the secrets to life.”

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