Melissa Carper (from the album Ramblin’ Soul

Melissa Carper (from the album Ramblin’ Soul

Melissa Carper (from the album Ramblin’ Soul available on Mae Music/Thirty Tigers)  (by Bryant Liggett)
Melissa Carper may have made the coolest record of 2022. Old school acoustic and raw Boogie, dirty and gritty Cocktail Lounge vibes grounded a hearty dose of swinging Blues. Ramblin’ Soul , the latest release from Melissa Carper, is flat-out Roots music fun. Finger-snapping cool kicks the record off, complete with a sound several decades old, as the title track album opener “Ramblin’ Soul” drives in on a click-clack rhythm as Melissa Carper drops a story-song narrative about road life, professing her love for every second of her nomadic travels in each note she sings.
Ramblin’ Soul carries a load of Bob Wills in “Texas, Texas, Texas”, “Boxers on Backwards” is a fun lament about someone who ‘ain’t getting lucky tonight’, “That’s My Only Regret” is a two-stepping, cry-in-your-beer weeper. Ramblin’ Soul takes a drive down into The Big Easy as “Holding All the Cards” blast a Bourbon Street parade Dixieland clarinet.
Use this record as a slight Pop-culture history lesson as well as Melissa Carper does a bang-up job of digging back to 1970 to honor Odetta and her cut “Hit or Miss”, a gateway green light to explore more music from Odetta. R&B gospel sways in “Ain’t a Days Goes By”, dreamy Jazz sings a ballad for “From What I Recall”, and maximum-groove harmonies wrap around the beautiful “Hanging on to You”.
It is hard to tell if its 1930, 1955, 1970, or 2022. Melissa Carper has made a record proving old is new, and old-school, new-school is always cool-school. It is also a melting pot record, dipping its tapping-toes into Jazz, Blues, and Lounge Cabaret while remaining swinging, swaying, and finger-snapping non-hipster hip. (by Bryant Liggett)
 
Listen and buy the music of Melissa Carper from AMAZON
 
Please go to the Melissa Carper website for more purchase and artist information