OUT TODAY:
MELISSA CARPER’S NEW LP
DADDY’S COUNTRY GOLD
Not unlike Loretta Lynn, Melissa Carper is giving us scenes and stories and vignettes that kind of play out between home and the honky-tonk - NPR
Daddy’s Country Gold showcases Carper’s ability to stretch out a note or a phrase to pull at our hearts, and her artful way of delivering a lyric with the just-right emotional power imbues these songs with a power that stays with us long after the final notes fade. - Folk Alley
Singer-bassist Melissa Carper sounds like a voice from a bygone era...Evoking the cool, smoky croon of a lounge singer, Carper gives some winking commentary about having a good time. - Rolling Stone Country
It’s a tricky thing that Carper has done. She clearly revels in recreating the music of her heroes, carefully preserving the sense of romance and immediacy of the old classics. Yet by bringing her own experiences into the canon, she is unearthing a history that includes so many more of us, finally allowed to speak out through memories forgotten due to silence and taboo. - No Depression
Yearning, stone cold country - Wide Open Country
Through two previous solo albums and three side bands, Melissa Carper's worked a number of styles to find the fit for her voice, and it finally comes together spectacularly with Daddy's Country Gold. - The Austin Chronicle
The album is real deal country music, the kind that dabbles freely in blues and jazz and swing, and it funnels every ounce of charm and honeysuckle that Carper lends to her ensemble work and amplifies it exponentially - The Arkansas Times
Daddy’s County Gold stays light on its feet, and Carper sings with ease...Carper is a first-rate songwriter, as her new music demonstrates. - Nashville Scene
There's so much to recommend about Daddy's Country Gold, the dazzling new album by out singer/songwriter Melissa Carper, it's hard to know where to begin. - The Bay Area Reporter
A new batch of songs from Melissa Carper is something to smile and rub your hands together about like waiting for permission to cut into an apple pie. - Saving Country Music
Right away, you can tell that you’re in for an album that is much different than what you might ordinarily hear. - Glide Magazine
Melissa Carper has made a perfect album…A daring array of players and special guests accompany Carper across a dozen tracks dressed to the nines in clean, cool jazz-infused hillbilly serenades that linger in the air like fresh-cut hay. - Sound and Soul
As a dish cooked up with the spice of many talented hands, there rightfully should be a line out the door to sample this new album by Melissa Carper…it’ll meet all your expectations for classic country music with a dose of carefree humor. - Americana Highways
Melissa Carper is a talented singer-songwriter and upright bass player who is worth our intention - Americana-UK
We’re not only making new memories when listening to Melissa Carper’s latest…but we’re revisiting old ones thanks to the sweet, sentimental sound of…Daddy’s Country Gold - TrunkSpace
There’s something so absolutely refreshing about straightforward, old-fashioned playing. An homage at points, but very much of Carper’s sound…the right amount of rascally sweetness of a country night out. - Country Queer
Today, singer/songwriter and upright bassist Melissa Carper has released her critically-acclaimed new LP Daddy’s Country Gold; the album debuted in the Top 50 on the Americana Radio Charts, and that position continues to climb. “She obviously… has such a perfectly executed vintage sound on this album, but she’s very subtly subverting the form,” said Robin Hilton of NPR. “Daddy’s Country Gold—the image that it might bring to mind is that of reaching back to songs and stories and styles handed down, and that is one layer of it for her…but it also is a reference to her own wonderfully butch nickname,” added NPR’s Jewly Hight. “There are elements of stoicism and sentimentality and pining, just like you hear from Loretta Lynn on her album, but I enjoy the fact that you can…hear Melissa Carper do a song like ‘Old Fashioned Gal’ using the language of kind of classic country and pop and jazz and making explicit in whimsical, playful ways that at the person she’s envisioning is a woman.”
As Folk Alley noted in the album’s premiere, "We don’t have to dig very deep into Melissa Carper’s rich vein of songwriting and sing before we hit gold, for from the opening note on her new album her shimmering and pure vocals and the lush instrumental carpet on which her voice floats glimmer with a vibrant sheen that tells us we’ve struck it rich here.” “On Daddy’s Country Gold, Melissa Carper demonstrates why the Great American Songbook has been so enduring. While Carper’s effortless bass lines and her band’s elegant piano accents recall an era we now call ‘classy,’ it’s Carper’s ingenious songwriting that takes the spotlight,” No Depression said. "Daddy’s Country Gold isn’t simply an easygoing album with a vintage sound; for Carper, it’s an effort to retrieve stories deliberately buried in the past…By using sounds straight from the past, she is queering history.”
Carper’s refreshingly unique style calls to mind greats like Kitty Wells, Billie Holiday, Loretta Lynn, and Janis Joplin, beautifully conveyed in the grooves of the album’s 12 sparkling gems. She enlisted fellow bassist Dennis Crouch (The Time Jumpers) and producer/engineer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Margo Price) to co-produce the album and bring her dream to life. Recorded live to tape at Tokic’s analog studio wonderland The Bomb Shelter in Nashville, the album features Crouch (bass), Chris Scruggs (guitar, steel guitar), Jeff Taylor (piano, organ, accordion), Matty Meyer (drums, percussion), Billy Contreras (fiddle), with guest appearances from Brennen Leigh, Sierra Ferrell, and legendary pedal steel maestro Lloyd Green.
WATCH: “I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT YOU”
WATCH: “MAKIN’ MEMORIES”
Daddy’s Country Gold is just that—twelve glittering Carper originals of the country, western swing, and jazz variety. From the first notes of album opener “Makin’ Memories,” to the whimsical “Would You Like To Get Some Goats,” and the heart-wrenching tenderness of album closer “The Stars Are Aligned,” Carper’s lifetime of work, experience, and wanderlust culminates in a beautiful portrait of heartfelt music, written by a road-lovin’ gal who has lived these songs and spent her life playing music for folks that still love the real thing.
As a child, Carper, who acquired the nickname “Daddy” years ago from her bandmates for always knowing how to “take care of ‘bidness’,” would lay her head underneath the family record player as she listened to Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and other greats from her parents’ collection. After a childhood spent in her family’s country band and a stint in the University of Nebraska’s music department, the wayfaring Carper found herself in the historic town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, learning to busk with the old country songs she loved as a child. She soon relocated to music hubs like New Orleans, New York City, Austin, and eventually Nashville, founding award-winning bands like power trio The Carper Family, playing festivals and gigs across the globe. Carper also holds a spot in award-winning Arkansas foursome Sad Daddy, and founded roots duo Buffalo Gals with Sad Daddy bandmate and girlfriend Rebecca Patek.
Daddy’s Country Gold is available digitally, on CD, and vinyl. Click HERE to purchase. Be sure to catch Melissa Carper perform live on Facebook on Monday, March 22nd at 6:00 pm CDT as part of The Boot’s Live & Socially Distant series streamed HERE and HERE. You can also see Melissa Carper perform with Rebecca Patek in their duo The Buffalo Gals on Wednesdays at 6:30pm CDT, streamed live HERE.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
March 19 - Austin, TX @ Sagebrush - 7pm CDT (outdoors)
May 21 - Little Rock, AR @ Fassler Hall - 5pm CDT (outdoors)
May 22 - Eureka Springs, AR @ Gotahold Brewing - 4pm CDT (outdoors)
June 17 - Nashville, TN @ Station Inn - 8pm CDT (indoors & live stream)
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