Bre Kennedy The Alchemist
Nashville’s long been known as a ten-year town (give it ten years, then move on if it ain’t payin’ off), but that decade is rarely a straight line. Evolving, adjusting expectations, self-reevaluations, and probably a list of shitty jobs end up demanding as much time as writing songs and playing music. Singer-songwriter Bre Kennedy is coming up on 10 years in Nashville, and her new album, The Alchemist, reflects an honest assessment of the changes she’s had to make as she tries to spin all that hard work into something approaching gold.
“Grassroots” begins the album with piano and a brief, direct assessment of life – “I was born alone/And I’ll die alone.” Bleak, but also accurate. But instead of choosing nihilism, Kennedy elects to go with personal responsibility, as soon as that same verse – “I’m a heart that broke/Did it on my own.” That sense of self-owning continues on the next track, “Idiot,” a break-up song with more than enough blame to be passed around and turned back inward – “You should have known better/Than to fall in love with an idiot.” Tellingly, too, the relationship may have suffered from clinging to goals and timetables – “Keeping me tethered to your ten-year plan…Every lesson is a weapon/Like the pen in my hand.” Good if you learn from a busted relationship, even better if you can write about it.
Songs across the album (penned by Kennedy with a number of co-writers) are laced with guitar, keys and hints of synth, while lyrically adhering to the mission of self-examination and growth. “Good Grief” is a dream-like reverie on how the worst kinds of sadness can serve as a much-needed push forward, “When I’m crying/And I’m trying/To find the rest in the mess a little relief.” “Right City Right Time” is an acoustic- and mandolin-laced tribute to the less touristy corners of Music City, both in the places that Kennedy has fallen in love with during her decade there and the people that define it – “So here’s to a heart that pounds/For the love of what we’re doing.” And the title song, which wraps the album, has Kennedy embracing herself amid life’s messiness – “My broken pieces are my tapestry/Every stitch holds together/The story of me.” Forces in and out of Nashville will decide if gold has been spun, but Kennedy has created this particular gem all for herself.
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Another Side of You” – The most country song on the record, with acoustic guitar and banjo complementing Kennedy’s light twang, has the singer serving up whiskey and cigarettes with a side of avoidance – “What we haven’t said/Hasn’t killed us yet.”
The Alchemist was produced by Spencer Rabin, Micah Tawlks, Robyn Dell’Unto, Jake Finch, Collin Pastore, Ben West, Wilson Mcbeath and Matt Koziol, mixed by Tawlks and mastered by Adam Grover. Songs written by Breanna Kennedy Jacobsen, with co-write going to Rabin, Tawlks, Dell’Unto, Pastore, Finch, West, Mcbeath, Cheyenne Rose Arnspiger, Dylan MacDonald, Hadley Chapman Kennary, Jason Singer, John Mark Nelson, Melissa Fuller and Jonathan Michael Stark.
Go here to pre-save/stream The Alchemist (out January 30): https://brekennedy.ffm.to/thealchemist
Check out tour dates here: https://www.iambrekennedy.com/tour