Andriana
Lehr might originally hail from a small farm in South Dakota, but there’s
nothing small town about her songwriting or musical talents. Her latest release
Artifacts builds on the promise she exhibited on her 2013 debut Try to Be True
while still showing every bit of the influences that have shaped her into the
performer she is today. Her decade spent in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, a
traditional hotbed for talented singers and songwriters, has honed her potential
to a sharp edge and she has both the sound judgment and technique to
increasingly realize her artistic ideas. The ten songs on Artifacts never
content themselves with a single pose or line of musical adventure. Instead,
she fearlessly incorporates unexpected instruments into her template and sets
them against unlikely instrumental counterparts. Classical meets country, folk
gets a light R&B tinge, and her ear for inventive vocal melodies seems to
be unerring.
“Outrun
the Change” puts listeners on notice that a lot has changed and more is in the
offing. In some ways, this is a song that covers no new territory – plenty of
young artists have written about the accompanying shifts that come with growing
older and leaving childhood behind. What separates Lehr from her peers on this
track and others is the melancholy she invests this with, but the deeper
understanding as well. Her aims are deceptively modest. By merely communicating
the realities of her life and inner weather, she seemingly makes music for herself
alone, but by communicating these things so directly, the song achieves an
universality that reaches far beyond the borders of the autobiographical. This
applies to many of the songs on Artifacts.
“Ready
To Be”, the album’s second track, is similar in intent, but it takes a little
bit wider of a view lyrically. The quasi-shuffle of Steve Goold’s drumming
gives Lehr a great rhythmic base to sing over and she takes full advantage of
it. The languid unraveling of “Ashes in the Fog” is about, in some respects,
finding clarity in a life and world where things aren’t always clear or present
themselves as they. How do you deal with that, how do you move on? Lehr finds
no real answers, but perhaps those answers are here for listeners to discover
and remain unspoken. Ken Wilson’s evocative, haunting dobro playing gives the
song a second “vocal” that neatly complements Lehr’s own. The tenor sax making
an appearance on “Bright Yellow Lights” gives this track a smoky, late night
quality that it might otherwise lack and the reverb-soaked guitar work further
accentuates that. Though Lehr brings a bevy of talented collaborators to work
with her on this album, none of the tracks are a showcase of their virtuosic
skills and, instead, musicians like saxophonist J.P. Delaire and guitarist
Bryan Ewald are much more concerned with serving the song.
“The
Expansion of Everything” ends the album on the same daring note that has
characterized so much of it. Pedal steel and cell co-exist easily together with
Lehr’s folkie acoustic guitar and she delivers another stunning vocal that puts
a bright spotlight on her exquisite phrasing. Artifacts is the sort of album
that all around music fans will enjoy and continue returning to for some time –
it isn’t reined in by silly labels or an unwillingness to take chances.
9
out of 10 stars
SOUNDCLOUD:
https://soundcloud.com/andriana-lehr
Montey
Zike
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