Angaleena Presley: American Middle Class Live on David Letterman. Video. Late Show with David Letterman, October 11, 2014. YouTube.
Angaleena Presley website.
About Angaleena:
If there’s a pedigree for a modern country music star, then Angaleena Presley fits all of the criteria: a coal miner’s daughter; native of Beauty, Kentucky; a direct descendent of the original feuding McCoys; a one-time single mother; a graduate of both the school of hard knocks and college; a former cashier at both Wal-Mart and Winn-Dixie. Perhaps best of all the member of Platinum-selling Pistol Annies (with Miranda Lambert and Ashley Monroe) says she “doesn’t know how to not tell the truth.”
That
truth shines through on her much-anticipated debut album, American Middle Class, which she co-produced with Jordan Powell. Yet
this is not only the kind of truth that country music has always been known
for—American Middle Class takes it a
step further by not only being a revealing memoir of Presley’s colorful
experiences but also a powerful look at contemporary rural American life. “I
have lived every minute on this record. My mama ain’t none too happy about me
spreading my business around but I have to do it,” Presley says. “It’s the
experience of my life from birth to now.”
Yet the
specificity of the album’s twelve gems only makes it more universal. While
zooming in on the details of her own life, Presley exposes themes to which
everyone can relate. The album explores everything from a terrible economy to
unexpected pregnancies to drug abuse in tightly written songs that transcend
the specific and become tales of our shared experiences. “I think a good song
is one where people listen to a very personal story and think ‘That’s my story,
too,’” Presley says.
Mission
accomplished.
She has
created a hugely resonant album, one that is simultaneously a completely new
sound and also deeply entrenched in the beloved traditions of country music,
much like Presley herself. Her early life in the mountains was one that taught
her to respect her heritage while being invested in the future at the same
time. Her parents made sure she knew
Carole King and Janis Joplin as well as Ralph Stanley, Merle Haggard, and Bill
Monroe. She studied the melodies and lyrics of Indigo Girls yet sometimes skipped
school so she could drive over to Loretta Lynn’s home at Butcher Holler to seek
inspiration.
Presley
grew up in a place where the lush mountains and dignity of the people were
juxtaposed against a spreading prescription pill problem and rampant unemployment.
She doesn’t hold back from exploring these tough issues while also managing to
have a rollicking time on the record, often combining the harder subjects with
a more driving and joyous delivery but without ever sacrificing the seriousness
of the topics she is cutting wide open.
Before
creating this solo effort Presley meticulously crafted her own sound for years.
“I have paid my dues. I’ve been through the grind, and so many people have told
me no. But I kept on making music. I had to,” Presley says. “I never would
compromise because I couldn’t. Part of
the waiting has been my own unwillingness to follow the formula but now I feel
like the formula has caught up with me. Maybe I was just ahead of my
time.”
That
particular sound is one that is equal parts tradition and originality on a
concept album in the tradition of Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger or Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love, albums that tell a succinct and powerful story
through a signature sound and masterful songwriting of true artists. Presley
knows how to have a big time but she is also fiercely dedicated to her music,
keenly intelligent, and determined to tell her own truth.
Presley
wrote five of the twelve songs by herself and her co-writers are a virtual
Who’s-Who of the best songwriters in the business: Mark D. Sanders, Matraca Berg, Lori McKenna,
Sarah Siskind, Bob Dipero, Barry Dean, and Luke Laird. She credits her
co-producer, Jordan Powell, with assembling an enviable cast of pickers on a
record that allows room for the instrumentalists to shine. Among them are Keith
Gattis (who’s acoustic solo on “Life of the Party” offers a standout moment)
and Audley Freed on guitars, mandolins, and dobros; Josh Grange on a
beautifully grieving pedal steel; mandolins, and dobros; Fred Elrtingham keeps
things rocking along on drums; Grammy winner Glenn Worff and Motown-influenced
Aden Bubeck on bass (with both upright and electric bass adding sizzle to
“Knocked Up”), David Henry on haunting cello and strings; and John Henry Trinko
driving it all home with a wonderful job on organ and piano. To cap it all off,
there are also amazing harmony vocals from standouts such as Patty Loveless,
Chris Stapleton, Angie Primm, Keith Gattis, Kelly Archer, Sarah Siskind, Gale
Mayes and Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls).
The
honesty, the aching delivery, the picking, the beautifully crafted songs—they
all come together to form an album that has been awaited with bated breath by
fans and the industry alike and does not disappoint, announcing a bonafide
country music star who doesn’t just have the pedigree, she also has the magic
in her to transform and move her listeners.
“In
this fast-paced day and age, it’s so hard for us to slow down and live in the
moment,” Presley says. “I just hope my songs can be three minutes for a person
to experience something in the moment, to connect, and to feel something,
whether that be tragedy or joy or something in between. I want to tell the truth.”
Angaleena Presley Is a Coal Miner’s Daughter, Too. By Jewly Hight. CMT, October 23, 2014.
Angaleena Presley’s music honors and
celebrates of the strength, resilience, and moral values of the Jacksonian folk
community, otherwise known as the American Middle Class.
