Show Review: Caitlin Cannon w/ “Love Addict” at AmericanaFest 2024

Put Caitlin Cannon’s Love Addict on your top watch list of upcoming album releases.

Back in January, Cannon presented some new songs at the 30A Songwriters Festival in Seaside, FL and Americana Highways was there for the song swap, centering around her 4-track EP release Beggar. Those songs are part of the sessions recording fourteen songs. Beggar is the prelude to the upcoming album.

Comfortably after the Americana Awards and Honors, Cannon’s official AmericanaFest 2024 showcase previews six of the ten songs from Love Addict with a full band!

Imagine the challenge of timely reaching some AmericanaFest showcases after the awards program. For those not attending the awards, options abound between awards watch parties and a lineup of artists playing showcases during the early evening.

For awards show attendees, a desired showcase later on Wednesday night may conflict with the last couple of award presentations, performances and the show finale.

For example, in a more recent year, American Aquarium started their showcase at 10 pm. The awards show usually wraps up around 10:30 pm. Then add a ride share over to a venue.

Caitlin Cannon’s 11 pm showcase at Jane’s Hideaway in East Nashville was well-rimed and a great way to close out the night.

Cannon is a combination of sweet and bawdy. And when you consider her vocal style, she’s like Kacey Musgraves without the innocence. It’s this authenticity that’s part of her charm.

A light tapping of toms by Taylor Floreth and Ryan Keith’s twinkling keys are the softer sounds introducing the first number of Cannon’s set. It’s a song about emotional edging on “I Wouldn’t Say I Love You.”

There’s something deeper than a crush, she sings, but “once there’s love, it’s the beginning of the end.” Love is held at bay in these longing vocals.

The second song “Drink Enough” comes from her critically acclaimed The TrashCannon Album (2020). It’s an upbeat, catchy tune.

Caitlin Cannon says the song is from a time when she was blackout drunk. By placing the lyrics on her voice memo recorder, an after-drinking discovery becomes a song. The lyrics explore relationship difficulties and self-worth.

TrashCannon receiving a 9.5 rating in 2020 from Kyle “Trigger” is tremendous. If there’s one thing to know about Coroneos, he’s a tough grader on his Saving Country Music site.

Thoughts of TrashCannon are a reminder of albums set for release and how the ensuing pandemic sidelined tours, album sales and aspirations. Cannon got back to songwriting in 2021.

After previewing the digital album, I believe Love Addict should reach the top of enlightened end of year album lists.

On some of the recorded songs there’s pedal steel guitar and string arrangements reminiscent of the vibe on late 1960s and 1970s country songs, allthewhile maintaining her realism, grit, and at times, irreverence. (Think of background arrangements on Glen Campbell’s “If You Go Away” – Crystal Gayle’s “Talking In Your Sleep” and Ray Price’s classic “For The Good Times”)

Cannon is in the final week of a crowdfund and pre-sale campaign to get three years of work on Love Addict released and promoted. Check out the album backing campaign: http://seedandspark.com/fund/love-addict

Next in the eight-song set, Cannon introduces “Dr Dealer” – a love song to her female psychiatrist. It’s a bouncy song accompanied by shakers during the live performance. Cannon has been open about personal struggles and following a doctor’s scripts is part of this.

Shifting the tempo back down, “Let It Hurt Some” is defined by light guitar strums and the reserved rap of brushes on the drums. This is a slow dance song for lovers… of sad songs. It’s about a breakup with hopes an ex-lover feels something from the relationship ending. Cannon delivers plaintive vocals. On the digital recording preview, touches of harmonica with tropical-style pedal steel carry a heavy heart.

Now we arrive at the most irreverent of Cannon’s set. She tells the audience she has an affection for Jason Momoa. She sees a picture of Jesus reminding her of the actor. So what does Cannon do? She writes a song “Jesus Is My Lover.”

If you’ve encountered Cannon’s sarcasm and sense of humor, a major pun might be expected to conclude her song introduction (which invokes head shaking disbelief) – “I mean that in the Biblical sense,” she says.

Oof.

Her vocal swagger, the steady drum beat and speakeasy brass carry the song seductively (the brass is on the recording)

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Caitlin Cannon tells the crowd she doesn’t have a song about a real human man. Nonetheless, unbridled lust is the subject of her title song “Love Addict” from the forthcoming album.

Double acoustic guitar strums and keyboard play on the Wurlitzer start out. After the first lyric line, there’s an alternating response line from Cannon at a much faster tempo in a talk-singing style and the pattern repeats. In the song she considers this man to be “the best drug in Tennessee.” “Love Attic” is very catchy with the upbeat tempo and change ups to her singing rhythm.

The mood shifts. There’s melancholy infused in the next song. It’s also the final song listed on Love Addict. If that song order holds, serious music listeners will have an album to be played as an album.

Cannon is personally affected by the pitfalls of the criminal justice system. It seems her older brother got jammed for an extra charge. The convictions brought a life sentence. Now at the age of 51, he’s been incarcerated for 34 years.

When Cannon sought to write a song about his situation, her brother didn’t want it to be about hopes for his release. Instead, it’s written about the woman he loves.

It’s a slow tempo song striped to acoustic play and her voice. The heartbreaking story unfolds in the lyrics.

Cannon turns a difficult personal situation into helping others. She visits the Walton Correctional Institution in Defuniak Springs, FL for a songwriter workshop with inmates. This residency program “Beyond Bars” is sponsored by the 30A Songwriters Festival and the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County.

The final song on the setlist is new and listed shorthand “Vegas” by the subject of the song. The actual title is “Funky Cold Medinis.” Why this tile? Cannon says is was the only thing rhyming with Vegas which works.

The song has a toe-tapping beat. It’s a two-part tale of poker outcomes.
The first part is about a savings account balance staying in Vegas. A friend of Cannon is a poker player and she hoped to learn enough about playing cards to fund the album and avoid the pressures of a crowdfunding campaign.

The second part is fictional about winning big and goes off into a situation involving extraterrestials. The lyrics “went off the rails,” Cannon said.

There’s great twangy electric guitar by Ellen Anjelico weaving through the keywork of Ryan Keith and Misa Arriaga’s acoustic guitar elements.

A respectful crowd provides a warm round of applause.

Congrats to Caitlin Cannon for a job well done with her live performance and the tracking for Love Addict.

AmericanaFest staff have a challenging task from year-to-year matching available venues with artist showcases. The effort really paid off at Jane’s Hideaway.

Find more details and information here: https://caitlincannon.bandcamp.com/album/beggar