Melissa Carper gives a graduate level seminar in classic country music style on her third solo release Borned In Ya. Carper is the real thing when it comes to Americana music, as I’ve been preaching since covering her previous albums Daddy’s Country Gold and Ramblin’ Soul. She grew up in a musical family and fell in love with the records of Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley, but especially the blend of jazz and blues and country she heard on Jimmie Rodgers records. I totally identify with her when she says of those recordings, “He combined country and blues and jazz. All of those elements, and the rawness of those recordings…I can’t quite put a finger on it, but I was obsessed.”
All of that and more combines to define her sound, an engaging stew of classic country, rock ‘n’ roll and early jazz, which she presents with a disarming insoucience on this outing.
Carper sings with an immediately recognizable voice, a husky honk infused with Midwestern twang that for some might be an acquired taste, but it’s as real as the dirt, and it lends authenticity to the sentiment expressed in the title track. “Borned In Ya” is a rollicking country gospel number about how you can’t sing this music unless it’s “born into your blood, into your bone.”
The presence of a baritone sax among the arrangement is a real plus, and it heralds the arrival of a horn section for the first time on a Melissa Carper record. Saxophones, trumpets and more lend color and zing to other tracks including the honky-tonk weeper “I Don’t Love You Anymore,” and the swinging two-step of “Lucky Five.”
The varied program swings between lush countrypolitan arrangements on Patsy Cline style ballads like “That’s My Desire,” “Let’s Stay Single Together,” and “Every Time We Say Goodbye” and boot-scooting Western swing numbers like “Lucky Five” and “Somewhere Between Texas and Tennessee.” There’s the rocking swamp pop of “Evil Eva” and the jaunty Django-esque jazzy one-step of “Your Furniture’s Too Nice,” for even more variety, complete with some sweet accordion and some expert whistling.
It all goes down easy with the able contributions of fiddler Billy Contreras, pianist Jeff Taylor, multi-instrumentalist Rory Hoffman, and the invaluable contributions of Chris Scruggs on pedal steel guitar. Put it all together and it’s another winning record from everybody’s country Daddy, Melissa Carper.
(Thirty Tigers, 2024)
