Caleb Caudle - Paint Another Layer On My Heart (2014)

Yes, my taste, and thus the focus of my writing here, runs to guitar based indie bands. But a few times a year an Americana/country album grabs my musical soul and pulls me into its world. Among others, Doc Feldman did it last year (review here) and this year I'm feeling emotional resonance with Caleb Caudle's Paint Another Layer On My Heart. If I understand the relevant biography correctly, Caleb is a native North Carolinian who now resides in New Orleans. And Paint Another Layer On My Heart is his musical homage to his new home. New Orleans should be very honored (I'd try this tactic next time I move if it weren't for a troubling talent deficit).

Caudle has that rare ability to grab the essence of an emotional moment, a significant reflection, or a wry observation, and package it in a lyric which is both economical and richly textured. When teamed up with good melodies, his own expressive and sincere vocals, the quality performers than never seem in short supply in the American south (including fine guest vocals from Lydia Loveless), and spot-on engineering and mastering by Jon Ashley and Evan Bradford, respectively, the result is an album that connects with the listener on a personal level. Themes of relationships and distance abound, but this album speaks more to hope and patience that loss and despair. Get this album, pour a few fingers of something strong, and put on the headphones. And relax, because you likely will have a long relationship with this music.