Loamlands - Topic

BIO:
      Sometimes the process of mining for melody in words eviscerates the raconteur, gutting them like a tornado through a trailer park. Sometimes, “the truth” is a revival of shit rather forgotten, igniting a coward’s desire to look away. With “Meltdown Rodeo,” Kym Register foregoes such consolatory diversions for visceral scrutiny and unbroken stares. The result is a body of tunes that forages the American south, dislodging its ducked bullets from pearly white sand. 
  Balancing the album is Register’s odes to white, working class reckoners-- Ella May, Maureen, Soni Wolf– that encases their unsung acts of defiance in mid-tempo rhapsodies. The aptly-titled “Blue,” is a diagnosis of Joni Mitchell’s unchecked iconoclasm. Little known fact: the cover of Joni Mitchells’ 1977 album, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter featured Mitchell in a blaxploitation era pimp suit, afro wig, and Blackface. “Blue”’s gutsy call-out challenges the conditions that still allows Mitchell amnesty, even after she traded her counterculture folk for jive turkey racism. 
   
Damn if we can’t all benefit from a little melting down. 

– shirlette ammons