All the songs on the album were written by AG Schiano plus some additional help by Carrie K., Steph Jones, King Tuff, Morgan Nagler, Brad Cook, and Cameron Neal on various tracks. The album was produced by Carrie K (Noah Kahan, Maggie Antone) Musicians on the album include AG Schiano, Carrie K, Hank Compton, Tommy Trautwein, Sam Kossler, Noah Levine, Will Taylor, Cameron Neal, Steph Jones, and Julia Digrazia. The album was engineered by Maddie Harmon.
The intentions are set from the start. On the first track, “Anywhere” the soft build up to the chorus and the flitting guitar chords, evoke the moment immediately after waking from a dream. Everything is a little fuzzy and hushed, slowly the past goes back to its place. It’s lush and blurry and everywhere, nowhere and anywhere. Her lyrics curl around the song structure. It’s a pleasure to hear someone play with a song in the way she does. It’s unique and yet familiar.
That same paradoxical place between the utterly unique and forgotten familiar is a style that works well with her overall tone and layering on the album. Verses in the song Midnight Crow for instance, “People say it was meant to be, and that’s the beauty of a destiny, the black magic was the recipe, and we didn’t even know it,” question the creation of reality for her. Was it built by an unknown force like the destiny, or did all of the behind the scenes hammering without a sound lead us to this moment. There’s a profundity to her verses that with a deep listen bring up a number of philosophical premises that float throughout the verses.
Her song “Blue Suede Eyes” takes us to a place haunted by the figure of Elvis up on the wall. “The floors are creaky, but strong enough to hold, these 1970’s trophies of gold. There’s a boy in the picture sitting on the shelf, and all these years later he still looks like himself.” The house as she describes it feels chock full of memorabilia of a past that is no longer present, where the outside world changes, but the inside still feels the same, familiar yet haunted by its own ghosts of the past. The slow piano on this is delicious and pairs well with her voice. It’s a place where time stands still.
“Cadillac” is another beautifully haunted song. “It takes a Cadillac for them to start listening’” she croons soulfully and saccharinely with a hint of sarcasm. Sprinkled in for good measure. The retro vibe of late 1960’s bedroom country is completely present by the time the listener gets to this song. Almost as if the ideals of the past, the moments of the past that impacted her the most, are still present in verse. It feels like a snapshot of a moment that could be anywhere but also specific. It’s ubiquitous and it’s done really well as we see it thematically repeat throughout the entirety of the album.
To say this is an impressive debut album would be an understatement. Buried beneath the covers, waiting to be discovered, the songs on this album create a full photo album. In it are snippets of the past curled around a dilemma, the issues between the present and a past that can never be returned back to. Her voice is pure cane sugar. It’s sweet but gritty and in those granulated snarls the deeper philosophical questions come to light. Throughout the album there are moments of joy and laughter and real sweetness, but they sit on the surface. The depths of the album reveal a much deeper level of songwriting. The instrumentation, stripped down and bare for the most part, is the perfect companion to her voice. This is an excellently crafted album and I can’t not wait to both see her perform these songs live as well as see where she goes after this.
Clover County’s Finer Things is available for streaming on September 26 on all platforms. To purchase it directly and learn more about Clover County, check out her website at: http://www.clovercounty.com
- Anywhere
- Sweeter
- Yours Too
- Midnight Crow
- Virginia Slim
- Blue Suede Eyes
- Angels
- Good Game
- Whiskey Cherry
- Cadillac
- Paradise Rd
- Stranger Danger