The Scenic Route
Self-Released, 2021
9/10
After a small handful of EPs, the Nashville based singer-songwriter Claire Kelly offers us a debut LP, where her inviting soprano and vivid storytelling unfolds with much sincerity, a healthy amount of creativity and often a lot of fun.
“Thank You (Intro Song)” starts the listen with warm acoustic guitar and Kelly’s expressive, eloquent singing which is literally a thank you to the listener as she discusses her career up to this point, and “Dandelion Wine” follows with a fuller approach as strings add much grace to the melodic and breezy, folky strummer.
As we approach the middle, “The Restless And The Reckless” displays Kelly’s versatile pipes as she hits some high notes that builds into a lush form of Americana, while “The Land That Time Forgot” moves cautiously, powerfully and with much soaring beauty in a dreamy landscape. “Randy”, a particularly noteworthy track, then showcases her deft guitar playing amid a poetic and intimate climate that’s even a bit raw in nature.
The lone cover is the Irish folk tune “Grace”, where Kelly’s flawless, heartfelt pipes illuminate the tragic love story, and “Jeffrey Jones” (about a cat, not the actor), exits the listen on a playful live finish that’s charming and even a bit humorous, too.
While there’s no shortage of young women armed with an acoustic guitar and a lovely voice, Kelly has the chops to be everyone’s new favorite artist, and when she sings that she’s not selling out arenas quite yet, we all get the feeling that it’s certainly on the horizon.
Travels well with: Megan Lacy- Salvation; Jenny Reynolds- Any Kind Of Angel