Bright Nowhere
Self-Released, 2021
8/10
The singer-songwriter and guitarist Kate Schutt returns with a 3rd album, and it’s a tribute to her late mother where her jazz, pop and folk sensibilities unfold with strong attention to both wordplay and musicianship.
“Mothers” starts the listen with strings and keys complementing Schutt’s elegant guitar and rich vocals, and “You More Than Me” follows with soft harmonica and percussion entering the poetic climate of folk influenced beauty.
Entering the middle, the uptempo and percussively strong “Keep Her Out Of Heaven” welcomes soulful backing vocals amid some pop friendly melody, while “That Spring That Felt Like Fall” enters ballad territory where an emotive quality is met with haunting song craft. “Roll The Stone Back”, one of the album’s fullest and louder tunes, then mixes rock and pop with a playful spirit of nearly gospel songwriting.
Closer to the end, “Carrying On Without You” presents a breezy landscape alongside very personal wordplay, and the title track exits the listen dreamy, vocally diverse and with agile instrumentation that truly showcases Schutt’s vast talent.
Schutt spent 5 years as her mother’s primary caregiver, and started the process for this record during that time. Understandably, the record’s tinted with melancholy as it documents the journey with her mother in powerful, heartbreaking and very articulate avenues of expression.
Travels well with: Carrington MacDuffie- Kiss Make Better; Jacqui Naylor- The Long Game