The Honey Dewdrops are a working musical couple from Virginia who recently settled and made their fourth album in Baltimore. Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish wrote all 10 tracks on Tangled Country and the album as a whole has an atmosphere of melancholy. Not despairing or depressing, but melancholy nonetheless.
Wortman sings in a pleasant, drawly soprano and Parrish a slightly reedy tenor, which makes their close harmonies very captivating. There are bound to be comparisons to Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and that seems particularly apt on the song “Guitars,” an artful exploration of the life of someone who pretty much has to write and sing songs, using the creation of a solid, physical thing like the guitar as a metaphor for that life. But I’m more comfortable putting Wortman and Parrish in the same room with Everybodyfields or solo Jill Andrews, or Diana Jones — they all have that same kind of rooted, native Southern melancholy feel to them. Take a look at this performance video for the best song on Tangled Country, “Lowlands,” for a taste of their style and substance.
There’s lots more like that on this lovely album of original Americana folk music. It starts off strong with Wortman lamenting but also celebrating a life of boring routine on “Same Old,” and winds up with a beautiful front-porch instrumental “Remington,” inspired by those rare times during the day when their new urban neighborhood suddenly becomes still. In between are chestnuts like “Loneliest Songs” with especially lovely vocal harmonies and twining guitar lines; “Horses,” in which “half-broken horses” stand in for the singer as Wortman pleads to be accepted just the way she is; the surprisingly upbeat-sounding “Numb” with delicate pedal steel work from Dave Hadley; and a couple of strong offerings with Parrish on lead vocals. These are “Fair Share Blues,” a romantic look back at a grandfather remembered as a straight-talking, hard-working type, and “Young,” which expresses a fellow’s confusion at his inability to settle down with a family and house the way his friends are doing.
The album is beautifully recorded by noted Baltimore producer and musician Nicholas Sjostrom, who also plays bass and keys. You can listen to “Same Old” on their website and buy the album at CDBaby and the usual digital platforms.
(Self-released, 2015)
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