Morgan Wade - Reckless (Album Review)
For some artists timing is everything. Sometimes it’s because your face suddenly fits and your take on a chosen genre finds a home, but for others, it’s a little more complicated. Raised in Floyd, a small town in Virginia, Morgan Wade was surrounded by the sounds of country, predominantly bluegrass, from an early age. In later years as she began to progress as a singer and a songwriter, Wade struggled to picture her voice alongside the likes of Shania Twain and Faith Hill on the radio “Alright, well, I’m not going to sing for anybody else - but I’m singing for myself”. Wade played publicly for the first time at 19 with a band picked up via Craigslist (probably not something that I would advise all things considered) and the ball started rolling.
Many a gig later Wade met producer Sadler Vaden at Floydfest the annual music festival in her hometown and they hit it off. If you check out any of Wade’s solo sessions on youTube or Spotify you’ll realise that Vaden (also a solo artist and Jason Isbell‘s guitarist) had the delicate task of capturing the distinctive singer’s essence and not turn her into the Shania that she couldn’t relate to back in the day. I’m pleased to report we’ve nothing to fear on that front as Vaden and engineer Paul Ebersold have done a great job on an album that is almost as much a rock record as it is a country one.
The other striking thing about Wade is lyrical honesty. Wade has been open about her problems with alcohol and doesn’t consider mental health discussions off-limits. “Is It a rule in the South you don’t talk about mental health?” she scathingly recounted on the 2019 single ‘The Night’. The realism Wade brings to her songs is to be applauded and proved a timely reminder of why I love country music done right. Wade delivers the lyrics with a voice that can soothe seductively or turn into a growling drawl at the drop of a hat. It seems to be a very individual voice which I’m guessing relates to her Virginia roots. The press release tells us Wade is a soprano but it’s the accent that makes it special.
The singles used as a taster for 'Reckless' do a fine job as an aperitif to the main course. Lush, but not overbearing and with just a little touch of echo occasionally accentuating the vocal ‘Wilder Days’ is radio-friendly due to Vaden’s production choices. Lyrically Wade laments on her older lover’s past and wonders what he might have been like if she’d met him years before “I wish I’d known you In your wilder days” while delivering lines such as “What were you like when you were a little wilder, why don’t you show me” with seductive power. The gorgeous ‘Take Me Away’ builds from a simple acoustic beginning into something of shimmering intensity “Lay me down on the floor in the kitchen, show my angry heart what it’s been missing” is not a lyric that all performers would be comfortable with but Wade owns it. The sound of a guitar feeding back ushers in the immense ‘Don’t Cry’ and acts as a warning that shit is gonna happen but you can deal with it. There’s some rather lovely, gentle instrumentation that, on occasion, peaks out from under a bed of tough electric guitar. You’ll believe “It’s okay to not be alright”.
Much of ‘Reckless’ feels reflective and Wade is certainly not afraid to dig into and re-examine her past. The ‘Other Side’ is a fine example of this but with an underlying positivity “You knew my skin before I had all these tattoos” while the punchy ‘Last Cigarette’ might deal with weighty subjects but that thumping bass and those backing vocals surely make it perfect for radio and not necessarily country radio. Elsewhere the hard-rockin' title track wouldn’t have been totally out of place on the Bryan Adams ‘Reckless’ album with its driving guitars while the shuffling beat, twangy guitar and atmospheric synth of ‘Northern Air’ seems a world apart but it all hangs together beautifully. In all honesty, I’ve (probably) left the best for last with the stark, haunting ‘Met You’ a vocal tour-de-force over acoustic guitars with occasional keyboard flourishes that sound strangely like twinkling stars (not that I know what a star sounds like but hopefully you’ll get the idea). Wade sings “I'd much rather die than think of the bed you’re In” and I'm sure I can feel her pain while ‘Mend’ could well be the best thing I’ve heard in ages. “I’m not much of anything, you’re my everything” is a particularly harrowing lyric while “No words spoken, I’m so broken, I hope you can mend me” hits the spot equally well on a slab of heartbreakingly intimate country balladry.
‘Reckless’ is a fantastic release from an artist who deserves to make some serious waves. The combination of Wade’s voice and the production choices of Sadler Vaden (and I’m assuming his guitar playing) are a perfect combination. Few artists would be as comfortable switching from acoustic guitars to cutting electric guitars, or even an occasional sparse synth as Vaden does here. Morgan Wade does this with ease via a combination of superb songs, her sheer personality and that quite wonderful voice. ‘Reckless’ comes very highly recommended.
Life is full of surprises. At a time when the majority of people would be content to retire, potter about in the garden, and leave new music to the young folks, erstwhile Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch is back with a new band and an impressive new record. The other surprise is that the Italian Frontiers label, usually the home of all things AOR and melodic hard rock, continues a welcome expansion into other musical realms. The Speaker Wars and Frontiers seem like unlikely bedfellows, but the label is to be commended for landing this particular release. More please.