Devon Sproule plays a homegrown, quirky style of country that's so inviting, you expect it to come packaged with cornbread and mashed potatoes. Devon's new album, Keep Your Silver Shined, transports you to her Virginia mountains, wth curving roads, splashing creeks and slamming screen porch doors.
Filling their album with guitar, fiddle, harmonica, accordion, mandolin and clarinet, Sproule and company infuse traditional music with their own brand of funky folk. With Devon's sweet vocals and the music's intimate sound, the record hearkens back to simpler times and lazy summer days. Listening to the album's lyrics is like reading poetry about families, small towns, falling in love and everyday life. Sproule's lyrics are honest and refreshingly real - when she sings "Stop by Anytime," you believe her.
My favorite song on the album, “Keep Your Silver Shined,” could be a page torn out of Devon's life, or perhaps her journal.
Filling their album with guitar, fiddle, harmonica, accordion, mandolin and clarinet, Sproule and company infuse traditional music with their own brand of funky folk. With Devon's sweet vocals and the music's intimate sound, the record hearkens back to simpler times and lazy summer days. Listening to the album's lyrics is like reading poetry about families, small towns, falling in love and everyday life. Sproule's lyrics are honest and refreshingly real - when she sings "Stop by Anytime," you believe her.
My favorite song on the album, “Keep Your Silver Shined,” could be a page torn out of Devon's life, or perhaps her journal.
Back home I've got a couple friends
We drink together on the weekends
We keep our nails trimmed and fingers tough.
I've got a felt hat collection,
A dresser drawer to put my pants in.
What, oh, what more could a woman want?
I want an overhaul for my guitar,
A claw foot tub and a shiny car.
Piles of fruit and a fully stocked bar.
Money for a flight out west,
Cute shoes and a vintage dress,
Big, new houses for all my relatives!
I want to land in a tugging hand:
A youthful bed with a youthful plan.
I want to wait and take my time,
All my time, to keep my silver shined
We drink together on the weekends
We keep our nails trimmed and fingers tough.
I've got a felt hat collection,
A dresser drawer to put my pants in.
What, oh, what more could a woman want?
I want an overhaul for my guitar,
A claw foot tub and a shiny car.
Piles of fruit and a fully stocked bar.
Money for a flight out west,
Cute shoes and a vintage dress,
Big, new houses for all my relatives!
I want to land in a tugging hand:
A youthful bed with a youthful plan.
I want to wait and take my time,
All my time, to keep my silver shined
As the album draws you in, you feel like you're sitting in a living room with friends and family, telling tales and singing songs. It even gets a bit too realistic at the end of “Does the Day Feel Long?” when a loud, clunking noise occurs - perhaps it's the slamming screen porch door? Some might find the noise annoying but it adds to the record's organic, down-home feel.
This homeyness is taken further (in a non-clunking way) by the inclusion of Paul Curreri, Devon's husband. Curreri shares vocal responsibilities on “Eloise & Alex” and joins in again with Sproule and Mary Chapin Carpenter on “The Weeping Willow.” This traditional closes the album, and as you leave Devon Sproule's Blue Ridge Mountains, the song's beautiful harmonizing stays with you when the curving roads flatten out into straight, open highways.
Track List:
1. Old Virginia Block
2. Keep Your Silver Shined
3. 1340 Chesapeake St. [MP3]
4. Let's Go Out
5. The Well-Dressed Son to His Sweetheart
6. Eloise & Alex (by Paul Curreri)
7. Does the Day Feel Long
8. Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest
9. Stop By Anytime
10. The Weeping Willow (traditional)
This homeyness is taken further (in a non-clunking way) by the inclusion of Paul Curreri, Devon's husband. Curreri shares vocal responsibilities on “Eloise & Alex” and joins in again with Sproule and Mary Chapin Carpenter on “The Weeping Willow.” This traditional closes the album, and as you leave Devon Sproule's Blue Ridge Mountains, the song's beautiful harmonizing stays with you when the curving roads flatten out into straight, open highways.
Track List:
1. Old Virginia Block
2. Keep Your Silver Shined
3. 1340 Chesapeake St. [MP3]
4. Let's Go Out
5. The Well-Dressed Son to His Sweetheart
6. Eloise & Alex (by Paul Curreri)
7. Does the Day Feel Long
8. Dress Sharp, Play Well, Be Modest
9. Stop By Anytime
10. The Weeping Willow (traditional)
