Bad Wife
For RootBall, 2020
9/10
A very unique effort, the veteran singer-songwriter Grant Peeples delivers an album where each song was penned by a different woman, including Ali Holder, Phoebe Bloom and Dayna Kurtz, to name a few.
The albums gets off to a sparse start with the bare “Crying Out”, where calm percussion and soft guitar complement the expressive singing from Peeples, and “3:52 a.m.” follows with a darker spirit of nearly Americana gothic ideas in the creative landscape.
Further along, “Iris” benefits from agile guitar lines in the hushed, emotive setting, while “Bad Wife” recruits keys from Red Young in the dramatic delivery. An album where each tune radiates it own rich textures, “Keep Trying” stands out with its lifting melody and backing vocals in its subtly powerful display.
Closer to the end, the acoustic guitar driven “Rich Man” flows with gentle folk-rock, and “Market Town”, the bonus track, exits with vivid storytelling where an accordion adds greatly to the unique project.
A subtly powerful listen, Peeples does not change the pronouns to suit his gender, and performs with a wise, thoughtful and moving approach. An album that coincides with the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in America, consider this a concept record of the highest caliber in both importance and execution.
Travels well with: Lynne Hanson- Just Words; Adam Carroll- I Walked In Them Shoes