Finally Feeling Young
Nine Athens, 2021
8/10
Listen to Finally Feeling Young
A debut album that took 2 years to create, the Nashville resident Sam Robbins channels his inner Jackson Browne and James Taylor across these very vintage friendly originals, where several musicians lend their talents on instruments as diverse as mandolin and synth.
“What Being In Love Is” starts the listen with expressive, poetic singing from Robbins as his warm acoustic guitar and well timed pedal steel from Neil Jones make for a very eloquent opener, and “Nobody’s Baby” follows with a calm landscape that benefits from Alex Fansel’s playful drumming amid breezy melodies.
Landing near the middle, the raw “Raining Sideways” is a bare display of beauty that’s indebted to ‘70s sounds, while “Saying Amen” flows with soulful songwriting dynamics that radiate strong, fluid and mature instrumentation. “New”, an album standout, then spotlights Max Chester’s piano prowess in a ballad climate alongside vivid storytelling where Robbins seems wiser than his years.
Inching towards the end, the title track showcases Robbins’ versatile pipes in his precisely textured vision and the acoustic version of “Remind Me” brings in vocals from Halley Neal on a folk influenced duet to finish the listen.
A cleverly titled album, although Robbins is a youngster, he certainly has an old soul quality to him, and his meshing of soft-rock, soul, country and folk inspired song craft is certain to gain him legions of new fans with this first record.
Travels well with: Seafoam Green- Martin’s Garden; Blue Cactus- Stranger Again