Indie

Kimberly Morgan York is Back With New EP

If you grew up, like me, cutting your musical teeth on Nashville’s long-lost classic sound, Kimberly Morgan York’s music will hit your sweet spot.

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It isn’t a painfully self-conscious pastiche. I never hear York treating the style like a butterfly pinned under glass, beautiful but untouchable, but instead, she breathes newfound life into the form and gives it peerless relevance. The four songs on York’s new EP Devil Songs and Other Such Nonsense fully embrace their pedigree. Kimberly Morgan York isn’t bashful about flying her flag high as a purveyor of the classic Nashville sound and makes it sound fresh for modern listeners.

The Kentucky-born singer/songwriter has this flowing through her DNA. I hear it during her outstanding five-star cover of Terri Gibbs’ “Somebody’s Knockin’”. It’s a bit surprising to me that someone hasn’t attempted resuscitating life into this stylish early 80’s hit because it has an approach well-suited for the modern country landscape as well as remaining faithful to the genre’s core values. York’s performance strikes a perfect balance between paying tribute to the original and blazing her own path with the song.

“The Devil’s in Durango” mixes abundant classic country song imagery into the track’s lyrics alongside York’s personal heartache. The latter isn’t conveyed without a measure of sweetness accompanying its painful flavor. York has an instinctive feel for these sorts of songs, she knows exactly how much to push and when to back off, and tailors her voice in a perfect marriage with the song’s arrangement.

She gets to be much more playful with the song “The Devil Works All Year Long”. There’s a bit of “down home wisdom” packed into this tune, but it’s never remotely heavy-handed and the kick out the footlights pace of the song makes it an ideal live number in waiting for York. She pumps plenty of verve into her vocal performance and the matching steel guitar runs scattered throughout the song answering her singing each step of the way. It’s an excellent choice for this EP release.

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“Other Such Nonsense”, the EP’s nominal title song, doesn’t reveal its message or intentions outright. You must pay attention. York rewards the listener’s attentiveness, I believe, with one of the most individualistic nods to the traditional country I’ve heard in years, and her steadfast refusal to pull her punches with either the singing or lyrics deserves ample kudos. It’s a perfect song to end this brief collection as well.

If this stuff is passe, let’s be grateful that Kimberly Morgan York never received that memo.

Instead, she sweeps and rolls through these four songs with singular confidence and obvious joy in her chosen art. York doesn’t treat the EP format as a throwaway and addresses herself to each of these four songs as if Devil Songs and Other Such Nonsense, a literal description of the release’s cuts, were a much longer work. It’s an entertaining and illuminating journey that you’ll want to take more than once. I know I did and do and that each pass through these songs proves well worth the time.

Kelly McKinnon

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