{"id":12960,"date":"2017-07-12T05:30:49","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T09:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=12960"},"modified":"2017-07-13T08:50:04","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T12:50:04","slug":"album-review-laura-blackley-and-the-wildflowers-tell-it-to-the-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/07\/12\/album-review-laura-blackley-and-the-wildflowers-tell-it-to-the-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Laura Blackley and the Wildflowers &#8212; Tell it to the Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-12961\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/blackley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/blackley.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/blackley-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/blackley-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>An engaging Southern gothic troubadour, <strong>Laura Blackley<\/strong> is a beloved fixture on the regional live concert circuit. On <em>Tell It to the Darkness<\/em>, her well-honed strengths are on prominent display. Chief among her assets is a skill at crafting thoughtful lyrics \u2014 word pictures, really \u2014 that work as well on the printed page as they do within the context of songs.<\/p>\n<p>The tasteful yet energetic musical backing throughout the album is reminiscent of classic country: judicious use of pedal steel and shimmering electric guitar; warm and inviting acoustic guitar; and a rock-solid rhythm section. But Blackley\u2019s lyrics are the centerpiece of <em>Tell It to the Darkness<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Most notable among the album\u2019s 11 tracks is \u201cGood Night Orlando,\u201d a tribute to the victims of the tragic June 2016 attack on the Pulse nightclub that took the lives of 49 people. Rather than chronicling the events of that day,\u00a0 Blackley focuses on a slim glimmer of optimism as she repeats the refrain, \u201cLove is all we ever have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As assured a vocalist as Blackley is, when she harmonizes \u2014 as on \u201cMiss Nina\u201d \u2014 she\u2019s even more effective. And when she turns in a more rocking direction on \u201cMama Don\u2019t Cry,\u201d Blackley demonstrates that her songwriting mastery need not be contained strictly to country. Lyrics like \u201cYou don\u2019t have the luxury to self-destruct \/ \u2019cause girl you got a baby to raise\u201d will ring true to listeners, parents or not. \u201cBlack Mountain Sugar Babe\u201d showcases Blackley\u2019s facility at suffusing country-blues with humor (not to mention Andrew Scotchie\u2019s tasty slide guitar solo).<\/p>\n<p>The sole cover on <em>Tell It to the Darkness<\/em> is a reading of \u201cNo Expectations,\u201d a deep cut off the Rolling Stones\u2019 1968 LP <em>Beggars Banquet<\/em>. Blackley makes the tune her own; unsuspecting listeners won\u2019t even know it\u2019s not an original.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An engaging Southern gothic troubadour, Laura Blackley is a beloved fixture on the regional live concert circuit. On Tell It to the Darkness, her well-honed strengths are on prominent display. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,49,65],"tags":[237,3092],"class_list":["post-12960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alt-country","category-americana","category-new-release","category-review","tag-asheville","tag-laura-blackley","cat-4-id","cat-6-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12962,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12960\/revisions\/12962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}