The amazing modern Americana legend Ron Pope is set to release his brand new, studio album this Friday. We got it sent over and there was no way we weren’t checking this out in full as soon as we could, so let’s dive right in!
The album starts off strong with the soul-filled, bluesy Americana ‘Nobody’s Gonna Make it Out Alive’. It’s a bit more up-beat and boot-stomping than I was expecting, but I’m not complaining at all! The strings and organ accompaniment are awesome, and Ron’s vocals and lyrics are amazing and country as anything. It’s simple but incredibly effective and is a fantastic choice for an opener. Easily an early highlight to make it onto the playlist!
Things slow down a bit with ‘I Gotta Change’, the emotion flowing through it perfectly. It’s a beautiful, heart-felt ballad, and is a lot more what I was expecting from Mr Pope heading into this. It also fits the “American Music” mantra of the album incredibly. Both tracks so far are completely different yet compliment the country genre perfectly. It’s another great song!
While still being slow and emotion-filled,’Klonopin Zombies’ does have a bit of a rock element to it still, a touch of the likes of Neil Young or Bruce Springsteen. It also has plenty of Americana, and just a touch of Celtic folk to it, which I really love. Like Neil combined with Dropkick Murphys. And I said, it’s full of emotion, the lyrics being utterly fantastic and almost brought me to tears. I can’t recommend this track enough, and it’s another easily highlight track. So far Ron is three-for-three!
Things get even simpler with ‘In the Morning With the Coffee On’, it being mainly just Ron’s vocals and guitar, the occasional beautiful string swell and subtle female backing vocals through the choruses. Much like the previous tracks, it’s incredibly beautiful, and between the arrangement and the lyrics it’s very powerful, giving me goosebumps. I have nothing more to say about this song other than it’s truly phenomenal, and well worth checking out. Another huge highlight on an album packed full of them so far!
Tracks like ‘I Pray I’ll be Seeing you Soon’ and ‘Where You’re Kept’ are more simple, folk-Americana tracks akin to a mixture of ‘Klonopin…’ and ‘In the Morning…’. It’s just true Americana-folk music, and again fits the theme of the album so well! Both are amazing songs, and the production on them make them so powerful when combined with Ron’s incredible vocals. The latter in particular is fantastic, and yet another huge highlight on an album full of them!
‘The Queen of Fort Payne, Alabama’ picks up the pace and rockiness again, finally and perfectly. The hallmarks of country are still there, like the strings and organ, but it certainly is more rocky, giving big Kyle Daniel vibes. It’s a really excellent song, filled with a great riff, catchy chorus and some awesome harmonies! Shock horror, it’s another huge personal highlight on the album, and yet another to make it onto our playlist!
‘I’m Not the Devil’ swaps out the acoustic guitar for a piano, another beautiful ballad and duet with the incredible Taylor Bickett. Their vocals work so perfectly together, and her vocal performance in general is another insane high point of the album! However, the song as a whole is excellent, and another that’s well worth checking out!
‘Mama Drove a Mustang’ is another up-tempo, semi-rocker. It’s generally slower and more Americana than the other two rock tracks, but does have some great distorted guitars in it to bulk out the chorus. Meanwhile the closing track goes back to the beautiful acoustic ballad to finish things off in style. I cannot get over how good Ron’s vocals sound over the top of these tracks, this being maybe the best example of his power and rasp.
Overall: I absolutely loved this. I went in without huge expectations as I’d only ever really heard his big few songs, never a full album. This was excellent from start to finish, though. It has plenty of variety of style and pace, each one pulled off to perfection, and for once I honestly found myself wishing a country album was longer! As I’ve said before, his vocals were incredible throughout, and his lyrics and delivery packed the album full of emotion. I’m going to be listening to this a lot moving forward, and clearly need to go back and listen to the rest of his albums in full! I’d recommend to any country or rock fan out there!
The Score: 9/10