49 Winchester (from the album Leavin’ This Holler

49 Winchester (from the album Leavin’ This Holler

49 Winchester (from the album Leavin’ This Holler on New West Records) (by Brian Rock)
49 Winchester’s major label debut, Fortune Favors the Bold, took the music world by storm in 2022. Their follow up, Leavin’ This Holler, proves they’re no flash in the pan. Although this is only their second label release, the band has independent album releases over the past ten years. The synergy of this album is more reflective of those ten years of experiences than a quick follow-up to a successful debut. The band fires on all cylinders, and lead singer/songwriter Isaac Gibson’s voice is as strong, resonant, and emotive as ever.
Lead track, “Favor”, is an inspiring Piedmont Blues/Bluegrass fusion that calls us to love one another. Speaking for those who feel hopeless, Gibson sings ‘nothing turns a heart to leather like the feeling of forgotten; and the hard times just ain’t stopping. And the world don’t seem to care like it used to’. Acoustic guitar and fiddle offer a lilting melody of encouragement as Gibson continues ‘there’s hope in them-there hills. There’s heart in them-there hollers where the whole world don’t revolve around the almighty dollar’. A bouncing bass line and cascading piano notes add a sense of buoyancy as Gibson reminds us ‘there’s taking and there’s giving. There’s life and then there’s living. And the only thing we’re given is today. So, drink it up and love your neighbor. Try and do someone a favor’. We may not be able to change the world, but as 49 Winchester so eloquently demonstrate, we can make the world a better place for at least one person. Maybe if enough people followed that simple advice, we actually could change the world.
The band displays their raucous onstage energy on the Southern Rocker, “Hillbilly Happy”. Revisiting themes from their previous album, Hillbilly Daydream, this song is sure to be a concert favorite as the band encourages everyone to, ‘stick an umbrella down in the sand and one in my drink too’. “Yearnin’ for You” continues the Southern Rock rhythms with an undercurrent of Bluegrass as they recall the road-weary Blues of their hit, “Russell County Line”. “Make it Count” is another Southern Rock anthem about seizing the day. Wailing electric guitar, weepy pedal steel, and moody Hammond organ introduce the Southern Rock ballad “Tulsa”. The music creates a heart wrenching sense of yearning as Gibson sings an ode to something he left in Oklahoma. The song has the potential to match the beautifully desperate pathos of his previous “Damn Darlin’” but Gibson misses an opportunity here by revealing the object of his desire is not a lost love or family member, it’s just the ability to legally smoke pot. Perhaps these lyrics would have worked better with one of his stadium rockers. That misstep aside, Gibson and the band deliver an Outlaw Country gem in “Rest of My Days”. Adding a soulful horn section, Gibson declares ‘I ain’t never quite deserved it, but you loved me just the same’. Touching in its honest simplicity, 49 Winchester proclaim ‘I just got something to say. Well, I’m gonna love you for the rest of my days’. The band keeps the Outlaw Country vibes rolling along on the dancefloor ready, “Travelling Band”.
Leavin’ This Holler slows things down for the Country Power Ballad “Fast Asleep”. Listing the minor spats and annoyances that go with any relationship, Gibson lets the frustrations wash away as he meditates on his loved one silently sleeping beside him. “Anchor” is a more somber ballad about losing a mother. Incorporating watery metaphors and a feeling of sinking, Gibson mourns for his mom even as his father puts aside his own grief to try to help pull him back to shore. The Leavin’ This Holler is a minor key memorial for the small towns in Appalachia that are slowly and quietly turning into ghost towns. Percussion comes to the fore as the drums beat a slow and steady retreat, and Gibson sings ‘Well, I can feel it changin’ every moment, every hour. Lives start rearranging and the sweet things all turned sour’. Feeling the burden of economic depression with no hope for change, 49 Winchester continues ‘I tried to take one for the team and stick around. Try to make things what they should be. But I can’t, not in this town’. Rather than go down with the ship, the story seeks a lifeboat to safety. The last verses find Isaac Gibson backed by a Gospel choir as the song becomes an elegy – for the town itself and the way of life it represents. It’s not just shops and factories that disappear, it’s the values, the kindness, the connection with neighbors mentioned so affectionately in the lead track. With every small town that fades into history, America loses a piece of its soul. Gibson and his bandmates can feel it. And if they don’t have the power to change the situation, at least they have the power to offer a fitting eulogy. Hopefully the young and ambitious who are leaving these dying towns will do us all a “Favor” and take with them the seeds of kindness from their small towns and plant them wherever they go. From weighty social issues to rowdy party anthems, 49 Winchester gives voice to a wide range of topics, all with a decided Southern flair. (by Brian Rock)
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