Whitcomb Celebrates the ‘90s Country Sound

If you’re looking for a romp through the stylistic and emotive possibilities of country, you need look no further than Rachel Whitcomb’s debut LP, Wildest Dreams. Whitcomb, who is also the Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Music Education at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, has crafted an album that harkens back to the country sound of the 1990s while also exploring her love of other styles. Wildest Dreams walks right up to the boundary that separates decency from nostalgia, but Whitcomb never becomes cloying. If anything, the album shows that the older hallmarks of country still have something to say.

She has many things to thank for keeping her on the right side of the line, and not the least of them is her band. This formidable group sounds like it was assembled from the basic elements of country, rather than the emblematic elements of an era. Ryan Joseph (currently touring with Alan Jackson) and Nashville legend Scotty Sanders hold down the fort on fiddle and steel guitar, respectively. Pat McGrath (who’s played with Dolly Parton and Allison Krauss) stands duty on acoustic guitar while Duncan Mullins on bass and Garth Justice on drums are Nashville session veterans. Johnny Brown fills out the band on keyboards, and the amazing Brent Mason elevates the works with his iconic Telecaster sound.

That Whitcomb was able to assemble a band of this talent says something about the strength of her material. Her ventures into country swing on the opening track, “Walk of Shame,” and what would probably be the B-side opener, “Tryin’ to Quit Me,” show her authentic country roots. “Walk of Shame,” which is about exactly what you think it is, provides the line from which the title of the album is taken (“But one of these nights will live up to your wildest dreams”), and “Tryin’ to Quit Me” features a chance for Sanders, Mason, Joseph, and Brown to swap licks. “Kryptonite” offers a sultry blues feel and, like “Control,” is one of many showcases for Mason. “Control” builds on his riff with Mullins providing a deep pulse and Justice putting the song into drive. “Control” stays locked in the trio format and is a standout as the hardest rocking tune on the album.

But the heartbeat of Wildest Dreams can be found in the album’s six gentle ballads. One of the most effective, “Live in the Lonely,” interrogates the fragile touchpoints of loneliness until it traces a line to the need for mercy, a word that drops into the song seemingly out of nowhere. But along the way, the question, “How do you live in the lonely?” is never answered, leaving the listener in a state of both realization and suspension at the end.

“Flirt With Me” is a song title that suggests a saucy barroom escapade, but the reality of it is very different. Whitcomb invests the title not with the demand of lust but with the urgency of someone looking for a lost connection in a long-standing relationship. “Taking Me Down to the Blue” stands on an elaborate color metaphor to evoke a similar kind of feeling. One gets the sense of a relationship where one partner is being a big downer (my summation is less poetic than the song), and the other is trying to encourage exploration into the other colors besides blue. As one of the album’s most beautiful melodies, “Taking Me Down to the Blue” acts as a showcase for McGrath’s acoustic playing and Whitcomb’s voice.

Whitcomb has a pure vocal tone reminiscent of Mary Chapin Carpenter, though Whitcomb’s range is higher and her timbre is a bit thinner. While some may yearn for flash and flamboyance, I do not, and I find Whitcomb’s straightforward delivery both beautiful and refreshing. It acts as a strong anchor for her vocal harmonies and dominates the record, but not in a vocal-forward sense. She blends well with her surroundings.

In this way, Mason walks a narrow line. As one of the most celebrated guitarists on the country scene, he could easily overwhelm just about anyone. But the tone on his Tele complements her voice exceptionally well, and songs like “Promise” show how attuned he is to the needs of the song. In fact, “Promise” brings the best out of both Whitcomb and Mason. Her vocal harmonies and his solo make it one of many highlights on a record that celebrates the sound of an era without desperately clinging to it.

Christopher Raley