There’s no hint of a writer’s block for Annie Keating. Her 8th full length album contains 15 songs and almost one hour’s worth of music.
Made while the pandemic raged, she keeps focused on familiar topics of love, loss and holding things together during these dark times. For example, Kindred Spirit emphasizes the importance of connections and sharing common values.
The album cover is a painting of Bristol County, Massachusetts where she and her family locked down. This New England coastal town was the inspiration for all these new songs.
In Bittersweet, the rising and falling tides prompt the sobering realization that we are here now and gone tomorrow, while in Nobody Knows she reflects on the need to face up to the uncertainty of what the future may bring.
Keating is an earthy singer and a storyteller in the Lucinda Williams tradition of keeping things real and true. “Maybe it’s time for no more sad songs” she ponders on Marigold but she is not ready to switch to singing of shiny, happy people and places just yet.
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The authenticity of her voice lies at the heart of tunes that blend the blues with alt.country. She is assisted by a tight four-piece band led by producer and guitarist Teddy Kumpel. Other musicians are Richard Hammond (bass), Steve Williams (drums) and Todd Caldwell on organ, piano and melodica.
The coping mechanisms covered in the songs fall into two categories. The first is a kind of pragmatic perseverance exemplified by Half Mast where Keating sings “as things fall apart, we carry on.” The second is to say to hell with sobriety and head down to Hank’s Saloon to drink away the sorrows.
Whatever road Keating chooses, you can lay safe bets on the fact that she’ll keep on keeping on and that album number nine won’t be long in coming.
Annie Keating’s website
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