Atlanta based band Collins Drive has a new release, This Town of Mine (Good Girl Cassie Music). The core members of Collins Drive are Don de Leaumont on vocals and guitar, Allison Shockley on bass, and Mike Satterlee on drums; the album was produced by Tim Delaney at Electric Gardens Studio.
At the heart of the album is the song “Another Day Away,” which features Caitlin Cary (American Aquarium, Peter Holsapple, Whiskeytown) on vocal duet with Leaumont, Will Scruggs (The Wood Brothers) on saxophones, and Michelle Schrotz (Brave) on organ. The song is a thoughtful self-reflective commentary on the all too common wish to get away from it all. Cary’s vocals add that chilling quality to a nostalgic build-up song and the instruments carry them along sorrowfully.
“Another Rainy Night in Georgia” is a languid ballad, which makes an uncanny, timely reference to the recently passed Tony Joe White along with excellent lead guitar melodies. Scruggs’s saxophone on “Shall We Dance” anchors a powerful number celebrating the power of connection, as the protagonist feels “like a lock that’s been matched with a key.” Suvo Sur (Brave) plays original style violin on the more rockin’ “The Bidding’s Closed,” with its lamentation over losing the land held in the family for generations: “yesterday I wondered why I had seen my father cry…” This one is a juxtapostion of difficult lyrical messaging over honky tonk rhythms.
This Town of Mine is a highly respectable edition to the Americana catalogue, and a stand out gem among the Atlanta area’s musical crown jewels. Get your copy here: https://collinsdrive.com/