I am new to Amelia White. A quick online search revealed that she is a 'lifer' and this is her eighth album. It always amazes me when I discover such a voluminous back catalogue. I dipped into the other albums (available on iTunes) and they all contain top notch songwriting. I have seen Amelia described as a writer-songsinger and that seems an apt description. Amelia is a fine singer, with a voice that can can sound like Gretchen Peters, Karen Carpenter or Lucinda Williams at times, however she is a songwriter first and foremost.

Amelia is from Virginia. She started out in Boston, spent time in Seattle and has now been based in, where else, Nashville for a long time. The inspiration for her songs clearly comes from travelling and observing. The beauty is in the details and I could fill this review with examples of her descriptions that can paint a picture in a few words ('It’s another round for the old man humming to George Jones, his friends are coming to drink their unemployment down on Friday night, American small town'). This is a great skill.

The tone is upbeat, but there are disturbances bubbling right underneath the surface. Amelia just describes, without accusing or complaining. This leaves the listener free to draw their own conclusions. The overall air is one of acceptance. Things are as they are.

The opening track, 'Little Cloud Over Little Rock' was inspired by a photograph. Amelia wrote about it on her Facebook page, and this really illustrates the entire album:

"The idea of the tune to me (because it's a song therefore, you can have your own idea of it) is that my life takes me all over smalltown America where I witness people.. all kinds of people. Red state people, blue state people... they may have their differences but in the end they laugh, they work, they drink, and they wish they had more money, or a better job. The song really is a reminder to me to not take what I see for granted. Life is short, beautiful, through the struggles we find some kind of mutual comfort, rubbing elbows at a bar, a show, or a church. The clouds blow by, and the sky gets blue again, it's the endless cycle.”

'Yuma' is about someone who is leaving, but again the power is in the images of the scene Yuma leaves behind: 'One last tune on the record player, something 'bout the truth from another soothsayer, something 'bout life being just a cruel joke, have another drink, light another smoke. And the band plays on all night long, what was that song? All the pretty women dance and sing along'. This track brought Ryan Bingham's 'Sunrise' to my mind; a song I absolutely love.

'Said It Like A King' is a re-recording of a track that appeared on a previous album ('Motorcycle Dreams'). It is a terrific song, that deserves to be heard widely. Where the previous version featured an Edge-style guitar, this time the song has a shuffled rhythm, slide guitar and violin. There is an air of suspense as the song deals with bullying and deceit.

The title track starts with the spoken words 'Don't think too much people'. Sound advice in today's world. Amelia wrote this song last year whilst staying in her promoter's attic in York during a UK tour. She was reading the news from back home and began to write, observing from a distance. Some of the songs are co-writes, with amongst others Grammy Award winner Lori McKenna, with Northern Ireland native Ben Glover (a UK Americana Award winner) and with England's own Worry Dolls.

The overall vibe is summer-y and lazy. And that brings me to the sound. If I drove this would be music to drive to. It sounds gorgeous. The album is produced by David Coleman. I do not recognize the names of the other musicians credited, but no doubt they are top class session folk. Amazingly the record was recorded in four days, in between the singer burying her mother and getting married herself.

Amelia is headed this way. After a previous tour she said, “UK has been a fantastic experience. I’ve met so many great people who actually have the attention span to listen to a whole night of original tunes...” (nodepression 2012). We sure do. Her UK tour starts at the Camden Green Note on 13 November.

Helen

9/11

http://www.therockclubuk.com/index.php/album-reviews/2954-amelia-white-rhythm-of-the-rain

Amelia White manages something special in the world of Americana. She takes the ordinary and commonplace and manages to illuminate the core, make you feel the sense of import in the littlest thing. She uses her words to clarify little droplets of information and so makes the listeners life a little more complex, a little more involved. And she does it without making huge, sweeping, emotional statements but with a sense of gentle humour as well as her needle sharp observations.

Her last album was ‘Home Sweet Home’, all about the travails of life on the road, and I would say that this is its equal even though it was recorded in only four days – emotionally an incredible time as it was between her mother’s funeral and her own wedding.

Her themes are vast – fate, death, politics, grief and loss of tradition – but she views it all with a wry smile and a sense of love.

Musically, the album ranges from rockers such as ‘True Or Not’ or heavy country numbers like opener ‘Little Cloud Over Little Rock’ while she is at her best on ballads such as the gorgeous ‘Supernova’ where her slightly nasal singing voice counterpoints some lovely guitar. The darkness around the album’s closer ‘Let The Wind Blow’ evokes a brilliantly moody atmosphere.

White is so much more than just a country singer and also so much more than just a songwriter. One of the best Americana albums I’ve heard recently.

http://www.music-news.com/review/UK/12892/Album/Amelia-White

27 October 2017 (released)

Andy Snipper

October 27, 2017

Monday 23 October 2017

Rhythm of the Rain: Amelia White Uses Grief As A Palate To Colour New Songs

"Don't think too much, people" is the spoken word snippet that begins the title track of Amelia White's newest album, Rhythm of the Rain.  

It's a flippant warning, a half-joke, a sideways call-to-arms that announces a casual subversion threading through these nine songs from the opening explosion of summer sunshine, through the heat of lust and addiction, landing with a glance at politics and fate while the window is still wide open, warm breeze blowing in the late afternoon. 

Amelia White asks us to not take it all so seriously and, at the same time, shows us how critical it all is: love, fate, death, grief, politics, which isn't surprising considering White made this record in the four days between her Mother's funeral and her own wedding. 

Rhythm of the Rain digs deep. Her well worn smokey pipes deliver a rawness you"d expect from mining that liminal space between grief and joy. 

While touring, last year, White stayed in a promoter's attic in York, and reading the news from the US began to write the songs that would make up Rain. 

That ocean of separation gave her the necessary distance to comment on the shake-up back home without finger pointing, something that White has always done. 

What separates Amelia White from most other songwriters in the Americana genre is her details. 

Like a short story writer steeped in the gothic humidity of the backroads, White illuminates the ordinary: "…dyed black hair and ear ring feathers/she"s gotta put three kids through school - she's sipping on the sly to keep her cool" (Little Cloud Over Little Rock). 

"Boy sat on a bus in the only open seat, mittens in one hand and a backpack at his feet" (Said It Like a King).  

There's a catchy melodic laziness to her rock and roll, an afternoon drive in the country, the top down, bare legs up on the dash, singing along to your favorite song: 

"When you feel like a sinking sun, you're not the only one", she sings, on Sinking Sun and you can almost taste the freedom of summer adolescence.  

The light threads through these songs.  "Sunshine coming through my window/I found something that I wanted…you" she sings to a lover in "Supernova," and later the love turns dark in Sugar Baby. 

As the album winds to a close, White leaves us with the one-two political punch of True or Not? 

"There's talk in the street that the deal is changing, everybody's on edge, look around" and then gently releases us with the hopeful coda, Let The Wind Blow, written with UK darlings, Worry Dolls. 

It's a wistful dream: "Miles and miles I thought I"d found a place to call home and a hand to hold/I put good money on this one, I don"t like to be wrong, I don"t like to be wrong." 

Lifers. It's how we define musicians called to the stage, living life in hotels, and friend's spare rooms, playing small and large clubs with sticky-floor stages, and microphones that taste of cigarettes. 

White has had TV and film placements (most notably Justified), record deals, cuts by some of the finest artists in the Americana world, but for her the success is in the doing, and there is no choice in the matter. 

She is a rock and roll soothsayer, an East Nashville Cassandra with an Americana gospel shout thicker than the paper-thin illusion of fame and money.  

Rhythm of the Rain is a late afternoon storm, a sky on the verge of cracking as wide open as Amelia White's heart. 

Amelia White plays The Greys, Brighton, on Tuesday 14th November 2017. CLICK HERE for more info.

by: Mike Cobley

http://magazine.brighton.co.uk/Clubs-and-Music/Reviews/Rhythm-of-the-Rain-Amelia-White-Uses-Grief-As-A-Palate-To-Colour-New-Songs/21_45_4892

Mmmmmm, Smokey and Sultry Songs of Love, Life and Grief.

Sometimes it’s difficult to put into words why you like a particular singer or band; but with Amelia White her voice tugged at my very heartstrings the first time I heard it 5 or 6 years ago; and the stories she tells and the way she sings them makes me go weak at the knees every time they come out of the office Hi-Fi.

RHYTHM OF THE RAIN is Amelia’s 8th album in nearly twenty years and ( #SpoilerAlert ) is by far her most mature and probably the best I’ve heard.

The intro to opening track Little Cloud Over Little Rock sounds like a cool Indie Alt. Country band is about to kick in; them Amelia’s haunting and slightly smokey voice filters out of the speakers and a whole new aura envelopes the proceedings.

The story is full of intimate detail you’d normally associate with writers like Dylan and Joni or maybe Springsteen; not someone you’ve probably never heard of before. The character in the song has ‘dyed black hair and ear feather rings/she’s gotta put three kids through school/she’s sipping on the sly/to keep her cool’…..see what I mean? And it’s got a cool melody too.
Songs like Sinking Sun and Yuma probably sum up my feelings about Amelia White best; not quite Southern Gothic, but pretty damn close and with a swampy Country feel to them too; sort of as if Bobbie Gentry was singing her saddest songs with Creedence backing her.
There are Love Songs here aplenty; but not the ‘Moon in June’ type; these are dark and mysterious; the type you find later in life……listen to Sugar Baby and Supernova without getting a shiver down your back, and you are a stronger person than I am.

If this is your type of music; and I presume it is if you are still reading this far; you will absolutely love the title track Rhythm of the Rain; and my personal ‘favourite’ song here…….Let The Wind Blow, which closes the proceedings. In theory a simple enough song until you listen a second time, and even more intently the third and fourth times as a gorgeous story unfolds and unravels like a magical fairytale.

While these songs were written long before Amelia went into the studio; but when you realise that this album was written in the four short days between her Mother’s funeral and her own wedding; you will find an extra special spirituality in the way she delivers these beautiful songs.

Released October 27th 2017

https://rockingmagpie.wordpress.com/2017/10/24/amelia-white-rhythm-of-the-rain/

No, there’s no sign of a cover of The Cascades’ 1962 hit here; it’s all very much contemporary Americana. Amelia White’s style is very distinctive, and this is emphasised by the spontaneous feel of “Rhythm of the Rain”, which was made in four days at a very  turbulent time in Amelia’s life. When she growls ‘Don’t think too much, people’ at the beginning of the title song, you can take a literal interpretation or a sarcastic one. Either works, it just depends wahich song you’re listening to. It’s certainly never going to be described a bundle of laughs, with “Yuma” and “Sugar Baby” dealing with addiction and “Sinking Sun” staring into depression.

The musical stylings are pretty diverse, ranging from the adult-oriented-rock feel of “Sinking Sun” and “True or Not” to the laid-back Crazy Horse feel of “Supernova”. The album has a more raw, rockier edge than last year’s “Home Sweet Hotel”; although “Sugar Baby” opens with a menacing, ”Deliverance”-style banjo and eventually moves through the gears to “Sticky Fingers”-era Stones. Then there’s the title song, with a backbeat, swampy texture, and a sense of oppression and foreboding contrasted with the folky string band styling of the album’s closer which is enhanced by some nice Hammond organ.

There’s one song that stands out, even on an album packed with powerful songs and performances, and it’s a co-write with Lorne Entress and Lori McKenna. The skittering rhythms of “Said It Like a King” make the song feel like it’s rushing uncontrollably towards an unpleasant revelation; I may be looking for examples of this everywhere at the moment, but this song does sound like it might have been partly inspired by the leader of the free world. It’s about bullying and pulls together vignettes featuring a bully on the school bus, a hellfire preacher and a general delivering unpalatable messages which are accepted because each one “Said it like a king”. It’s a very clever lyrical idea, but the kicker comes in the final verse. No spoilers, you have to listen for yourself.

“Rhythm of the Rain” is an intense experience; even the opening song “Little Cloud Over Little Rock”, peeping into the lives of smalltown Americans having their Friday night fling to a soundtrack of Merle Haggard and George Jones is underpinned by the quiet desperation of the line ‘his friends are coming to drink their unemployment down.’ Is the album downbeat? Yep. Fraught? Sure. Compelling? Utterly.

“Rhythm of the Rain” is released in the UK on White-Wolf Records on Friday October 27th.

Amelia will be touring the UK in November. Check out the dates here.

http://musicriot.co.uk/album/rhythm-of-the-rain-amelia-white/ 

by  Mckaya ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2017

"White’s patternation of voice might not be to everyone’s taste – but those that don’t ‘get it’ are just wrong or maybe ill informed – or both.  This is the real deal, full of juicy tunes; all in her lazy broken style, the woman just oozes cool. Her last record, Home Sweet Hotel was a real tour de force and this is no exception – White is in a real rich vein of form, the production is snappy, the band taught and on the money.  Her art is prospering, and making the world richer. 

A connected woman, there ain’t no one she don’t know, and nobody has anything but good to say about her, with the result that this album has some great co-writes; Ben Glover, Ann McCue, the UK’s Worry Dolls, and one of Nashville’s super-hot writers right now – Lori Mckenna.  It’s all killer no filler for sure.

It is one of those records that’s great to start your day to, ease you into the grind, slip you from the sheets, pour your OJ, burn your toast and begin – with Amelia’s positive head on, workday blues are banished.  Try it, the hamster wheel of life will be faced with a more positive gait.

Album favourite, ‘True or Not’ has a lovely Spanglish guitar and a great line about frittering away your time watching Elvis movies – it’s like she’s sat in my front room and watched me squandering my life to Roust-a-bout.

White has a UK tour shortly and with an album as good as this it’s truly an appointment not to be missed, this is a chance to see East Nashville’s finest at the top of her game – take it.

Summary: Effortless cool and a song writing master class

9/10"

Rudie Hayes

August 8, 2017

http://americana-uk.com/amelia-white-rhythm-of-the-rain-white-wolf-records-2017

Amelia White, East Nashville Soothsayer and rock/Americana poet returns to UK with “Rhythm of the Rain” (To be released OCT 27th- Proper) a 9 song sunny storm of songs that illuminate the Ordinary with a a keen eye, and a lazy melodic sensibility.

2016 was a good year for Amelia White in the UK, where her last full-length release, “Home Sweet Hotel,” landed some killer reviews, like a “Top of Country pick “in the Telegraph (along with Buddy Miller, Bonnie Raitt, and John Moreland.) She played Maverick, Summertyne, and Platform festivals, along with a month of club dates. While touring White stayed in a promoter’s attic in York, and reading the news from the US began to write, the songs that would make up “Rain.” That ocean of separation gave her the necessary distance to comment on the shake-up back home without finger pointing, something that White has always done. No judgement, just sharp observations that lead to emotions. Music City Roots host and journalist Craig Havighurst wrote that “her songs each have some fascinating crystalline shape that invites close attention and touch. “Rhythm of the Rain” is a collection of tunes touched by White’s tenure in theUK, and she’ll release it Oct. 27th, 2017 (Distribution through Proper Records) as an offering of thanks for feeling embraced just when she needed it.

The touring life is the theme that runs through a strong album from Nashville's Amelia White. I liked the grungy strength of Right Back to My Arms, while the compelling guitar work complements the strong lyrics of the title song (“I’m like a riddle riding in the wind/Singing my songs for strangers in every town I’m in”). White can do traditional country well, too, as she shows on In My Blood. It's an individual album of depth, produced by Marco Giovino and featuring multi-instrumentalist Sergio Webb. ★★★★☆

Click here for the full article.

East Nashville’s Amelia White hits McCabe’s after a UK tour that revealed eerie parallels to the rampant divisiveness at home

---

The first time I saw Amelia White perform was at one of the late Billy Block’s Western Beat showcases in Nashville. Her beguiling voice cut through the air like a young, orange-jacketed Lucinda Williams, sweetly tart yet melancholy, as she sang “Black Doves” from her 2006 album of the same name. The song burned itself into my sonic memory like a radio hit that never made the airwaves. It bears White’s songwriting trademarks: reverberant guitars, melodies that dance around evocative images, and insistent pop hooks.

Those qualities similarly inhabit “Home Sweet Hotel,” which she independently released in early February. Warmly produced by Band of Joy drummer Marco Giovino, the album heralds a new stage for White — one in which she’s achieved a somewhat stabilizing degree of acclaim and fan loyalty, yet also embraced her profession’s inherent restlessness. The music sounds particularly hopeful during tracks like “Love Cures” and “Rainbow over the Eastside,” but even sober tracks like “Six Feet Down” float on guitar-stroked pads of contentment.

“To me the big theme of the record was trying, from the inside out, to show the two different lives you lead when you play music, how you have to be out on the road,” she explains, still a bit groggy from the previous night’s flight home to East Nashville from a month-long UK tour. “If you don’t sort of give yourself over to that when you’re out there, you’ll be miserable. But when you come home, you’re in that world. I have a strong sense of being happy in my home; I have a nice home in Nashville, I’m in love, I have a little fur family. I believe in the power of love. It’s grounded me a lot.

“And in these political times, I totally think that love is the answer. That sounds so cheesy, but I think the simple act of being kind to people you come in contact with in your day, and helping strangers and friends, and just taking a little more time to get off your damn phone and make some eye contact and make people laugh — I really believe in that. I believe in that more than I believe in anything right now — that, and the power of music and art. You can do all the political stuff, and I believe in doing what you can, but I really think politics starts from that place.”

Politics inevitably dominated conversations on tour: she arrived two days after the Brexit referendum. White, who describes herself as a “writer-song-singer,” laughs as she recounts how reviewers favorably perceived her as country (“so not what I’m perceived as here”), but her tone turns thoughtful when discussing the UK political climate.

“People were just kind of carrying on, but everybody was bitching about it,” she recalls. “And it was interesting because, just like I feel like I hardly encounter anyone who is in the whole Trump camp, these people that I was talking with were like, ‘We don’t know anyone who wanted Britain to leave the union.’ So it was really interesting, that parallel.”

Just as compelling, though more awkward, was trying to explain thorny US subjects like presidential candidates and mass shootings.

“I had a lot of dinner conversation about guns — just trying to explain to people. I think it’s really hard for them to wrap their heads around. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around, people’s obsession here with guns. I definitely have some friends who stand on the other side of the argument from where I stand, and when you really listen to everything they
have to say, you realize this is not shallow. It’s a very deep chasm.”

With several albums under her belt, White has settled into what was once called the troubadour’s life: writing songs, recording albums, touring, returning home to live and observe the world, and then repeating the whole process. Years of DIY touring have connected her with enclaves of understanding musical family, especially here in Los Angeles. (“A lot of times people think I’m from L.A. I don’t know why.
I always take it as a compliment.”)

When she performs at McCabe’s Guitar Shop on Friday night, White will be supported by players who have accompanied her at previous local shows and studio sessions — keyboardist Carl Byron, guitarist Johnny Hawthorn and bassist Ted Russell Kamp — and guest turns by Calico’s Manda Mosher and Kirsten Proffit, who will also preview material from their forthcoming album in a separate set.

“I’ve been playing mostly solo the last month, so it will be a luxury to have the Cadillac instead of the Volkswagen,” White says with a chuckle. “And Calico — they’re really good people and so creative and optimistic, and I love being around that. I’m really thrilled that a song that we co-wrote, ‘Under Blues Skies,’ is gonna be on their new album.”

As for “Home Sweet Hotel,” she’s still contemplating the circumstances that inspired it.

“Music, if you’re really sincere about it and you work hard, is the most humbling thing you can do,” she says.

But the same things that make her feel “passionate and high” can still bring her down.

“It’s hard to keep going knowing you’re on the margins,” she acknowledges. “But I’m pretty comfortable with the fact that I’m an artist. I believe that things come up to keep you going. The more you do and put your faith out there and try to improve, these weird nets come along and catch you. They’re not always exactly what you want, but they come — psychic nets or monetary nets. If you’re an artist, you’ve gotta do it, and that’s just the bottom line.”

Amelia White shares a bill with Calico the Band at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 5, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. $20. Call (310) 828-4497 or visit ameliawhite.com.

-Bliss Bowen

Read the original article here.

Its gentle start to an album of road ballads, and tunes inspired by a life spent in the saddle, touring, pushing her subtle, clever country roots across the highways of the US and beyond. The title track, an ode to the sanctity and relief found in hotel / motel rooms for the working musician is testament to White's time spent banging on the door opened by the likes of Lucinda Williams whose guitarist features across the record, to electrifying effect. In fact the albums rampant musicality lies at the heart of its greatness, and it is great. Rightly lauded by the likes of the Telegraphy as one of the best country albums of the year, I love its diversion away from convention drums as percussion, 'Love Cures' thunderous gong being a case in point. Throughout this approach embellishes, even supports White's haunting vocal.

Don't misconstrue her often quiet demeanour or slightly shuffly vocal, it's a muscular depth and subtly that only serves to deliver a rabbit punch when you least expect it (and a damm earworm). There is a knowing avuncularity to the record, a sly nod to the listener, a pre-assumed knowing of where she is coming from, it's part of its joy - you're welcomed in, part of her gang, a new friend made.

This is the sort of country that resonates so firmly in the UK, and part of the reason why East Nashville artists do so well here. We don't really get the beer n' trucks of music row, but artists like White provide us Americana, literate, full of fruity retrospection, dark moments of the soul - less red dirt more rainy days.

The record's essential charm is that although gloriously sophisticated and heavyweight, it's not showy or pretentious, it engages, beguiles and flatters the listener, and once its barbs are in you you'll feel like you have owned it for ages - a master piece.

-Rudie Humphrey

Click here for the original review.

"On Home Sweet Hotel the singer-songwriter Amelia White has put together a set of ten originals, that are full of regret, longing, and the feelings that life on the road can bring about. With a voice that sonically sounds like a mixture of Chrissie Hynde, and Emmylou Harris, and a band that fuses musicianship with swagger, this is an album for anyone who likes the more grown up side of country. Although the album is brilliantly produced, with polished playing, there is still enough grit in the mix to give these songs a life, both on the stage, and in the studio.The guitars of the title track, Love Cures, and Leaving in My Blood owe something to the wide open sound of the Eagles, whilst both Road Not Taken, and Melissa are gentle ballads with some aching harmony vocals, and a soundscape that brings to mind early Everly Brothers, and Rainbow Over the East Side is one of those songs with haunting pedal steel guitars and vocals that you think you have heard before. Dogs Bark is a rocking song, with everything in the right place, and is the type of song that Bonnie Raitt would record, the clean slide guitar being particularly strong part. This is a fine release, with enough interest, character, and musical variety to reward repeated listening."

-Ben McNair

HOME SWEET HOTEL

White-Wolf Records

 (4 / 5)

Gritty and melodic set from Nashville singer-songwriter

Amelia White’s voice has the craggy, jagged grit and pain of Lucinda Williams at her best but it also has a sweetness that Ms Williams doesn’t possess. Allied to White’s gift for melody, some mighty fine playing from her musicians and songs that can go toe to toe with anyone and you have an album that, even this early, is going to be one of the best of the year.

White has been making music for 15 years or so and this is her eighth outing (at least, it’s a bit vague). Her experience of life on the road described in the title track, encapsulates her greatness. A subject that’s been done to death and one rife with clichés, it’s basically a complete no-no for a writer. But, over some fuzzy guitar and a hooky tune White avoids the pitfalls, avoids the self-pity and makes something new. ‘It can bring you down, it can bring you round’ she sings, a sentiment that’s universal. It’s the same story with Rainbow Over The East Side, which is about Nashville but could be anybody’s hometown. Elsewhere, the sultry Right Back To My Arms has echoes of classic country a la Patsy Cline and the lashing of gossips in Dogs Bark raises a smile.

Every song opens with a melody that gets you from the off, every tune drives the words into the consciousness. The musical pace is steady, there’s no rocking out, no funereal dirges, things never drag or race by, they’re just… right. A great start to the year.

Jeremy Searle

Click here for the original review.

Amelia White
Home Sweet Hotel
self-release

Superb Set of Lonely Country Love Songs.

I was smitten with Amelia White’s previous album Old Postcards; and three bars into the sultry opening song on her latest disc; Dangerous Angel, I felt that same tingle in my tummy and my knees go wobbly again.
There’s something darkly sexy about the way Amelia delivers the words in this ‘world weary’ love song that tugged at my heartstrings in a way very little else has managed in recent months.
The title track Home Sweet Hotel follows; and Amelia’s voice sounds just as sultry and sad; as she tells a story only a songwriter who lives her life on the road could pen; and is exactly the type of reflective Country Rock that I’ve loved for over thirty years.
On her previous album I likened Amelia to Lucinda fronting Fleetwood Mac; well she’s ditched that backing band and picked up the Heartbreakers (in spirit) for songs like that previous one, Love Cures and later Right Back to My Arms.
Each of these songs has just the right amount of cool Southern Rocking impertinence to boost the singers expressively tired vocals; and make each song ultra-special.
All of those things also apply to Leaving in My Blood; but with added Twang too! The shadow of Lucinda and possibly a young Chrissie Hinde is cast over this song and a couple of others too; but Amelia’s distinctive voice is hers and hers alone – she sure don’t copy anyone!
By the time I first arrived at Rainbow Over The East-Side my senses had already taken a real battering; and this song very nearly pushed me over the edge towards real tears (I don’t recommend listening at 3am on headphones after taking strong painkillers!) and subsequently; I’ve had to take a deep breath before listening to the singers voice soar like a Dove on this sensational story/song every time.
In an album full of sad songs; The Road Not Taken; a co-write with Reckless Johnny Wales and the legendary guitarist Sergio Webb, who adds some seriously ‘cool guitar licks’ is a heartbreaker par-excellence. The story is pure sadness in Technicolour; and the type of Country song that Country fans claim isn’t written any more. Seriously, when you hear it you will become an Amelia White Evangelist and force feed it; and the rest of the album, to friends, family and lovers alike.
Home Sweet Hotel closes with another darkly bonnie song; Six Feet Down as it’s slow; dirge like melody is the perfect way to end an album that. hopefully will be a game-changer for one of East Nashville’s finest singer-songwriters.

Gritty like Lucinda Williams and expressive like Amy Rigby, Amelia White is a true storyteller/songwriter. Her new record Home Sweet Hotel is a dark, unglamorous slice of Americana. White’s voice is smoky and soulful, warm and deep, and her songs listen like entries from her diary on the road.

Title track “Home Sweet Hotel” is a nuanced portrait on a lonely artist, untethered from her roots. “Can’t remember how the dog smiles / but I can sing a hundred sad songs,” she sings, capturing that feeling of being in work mode and unable to conjure up anything familiar. White vividly describes the taste of road food, the smell of being on the road, and the isolation that comes from spending so much time with yourself and the strangers for whom you perform every night. The loss of identity that comes from long stretches away from home hit hard and unfold in a poignant and beautiful way. In fact, White even began writing the songs on the record from a Days Inn.

There’s a bluesy, almost Cajun feel to some of White’s instrumental arrangements, but many of her melodies and choruses are true ear candy pop-rock. “Love Cures” is a sweetly satisfying ode to the power of the heart and its tune is sure to stick around. “Dangerous Angels” is menacing and moody, with a driving rock and roll pace. “Rainbow Over the East Side” is an atmospheric tribute to a beloved city, and “Dogs Bark” draws you in from the first few alluring guitar licks before unfolding into a gospel-tinged Southern gothic treat.

Like most singer-songwriters, White spends a significant amount of time traveling and playing to small rooms to make a living. It’s not a pretty lifestyle, but White beautifies it with her raw, authentic lyrics and gorgeously lived-in pipes. Listening to Hotel may leave you feeling like you want to buy her a beer and then sit and drink it with her so she can share her tales from the road. But if she doesn’t come through a city near you, buy yourself one and give this record a good listen.

By Maeri Ferguson

http://nodepression.com/album-review/amelia-white-conjures-tales-road-home-sweet-hotel

Despite the consistent quality of her work, it’s hard to imagine Amelia White topping Home Sweet Hotel.

Amelia White
Home Sweet Hotel
(White Wolf)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

East Nashville — by way of Boston and Seattle — singer-songwriter Amelia White has no shortage of road miles on her odometer over the past 15 years. She’s done it the hard way, releasing six previous albums on a variety of indie imprints and hitting the endless highway, winning over audiences one club, bar or opening slot at a time. She has landed a handful of tracks on TV shows and gotten uniformly positive reviews but the gold ring has so far eluded her. That may change with Home Sweet Hotel.

While there is no such thing as a bad or substandard Amelia White release, it’s clear she has gradually honed her songwriting and, especially, her vocal skills. But White has gradually refined her voice to take elements of Marianne Faithfull’s edgy growl, Lucinda Williams’ southern drawl and Sam Phillips’ dark, jazz tinged croon and combine them into something instantly recognizable. Likewise, her songwriting has become tighter with arrangements that fuse country, folk, pop and even some blues for a sumptuous American gumbo that’s often similar to a mashup of Rosanne Cash and Tom Petty at his most rustic. It also helps having drummer/producer Marco Giovino (Buddy Miller) to tweak these songs into fighting shape. 

The ethereal strum of “Rainbow Over The East Side” with its yearning vocal and crying fiddle and the darker, earthy love song “Right Back to My Arms” display the maturity and subtlety of White’s singing, while the backing keeps the sound edgy yet commercial enough for more mainstream tastes. Selections like the subdued blues rock title track and the reflective Byrds-styled “Leaving in My Blood” reveal the traveling that has been a staple of White’s life and is implied by the album’s title. The funky “Dogs Bark” pushes boundaries utilizing a drum loop to drive its swampy groove. The easily melodic “Love Cures” seems to have the right balance to be the hit that has so far eluded White. 

Despite the consistent quality of her work—2006’s Black Doves remains a high water mark — it’s hard to imagine Amelia White topping Home Sweet Hotel, an album that, if it connects with a wider audience, should provide a respite from the love/hate relationship she has with the road that has been her second home.

By Hal Horowitz

http://americansongwriter.com/2016/02/159258/

Amelia White is musical comfort food for me, coming from that classic place between singer/songwriter, jangle pop and country that comes for the beating heart of the Americana format. I’ve been a fan for years. Her voice is plaintive and real, and her songs each have some fascinating crystalline shape that invites close attention and touch. I loved the brisk snappy mood of opener “Daddy Run” and the half desperate, tempted to the breaking point quality of “Dangerous Angel.” Really sharp was a new song with the really very funny and true observation about the ubiquity of gossip: “dogs bark; people talk.” She brought a razor sharp band that included not just one banging country-plus guitarist (Sergio Webb) but another (John Jackson) who dazzled on frets and slide respectively.

From the “long overdue” file we’ll hear from East Nashville “writer, song-singer” Amelia White, whom I discovered during my days of official discovery duty at The Tennessean. Along about 2002 came a disc called Blue Souvenirs that featured a mix of keening country pathos, urban savvy and resonant songwriting. The composition, texture and singing made me think of Lucinda Williams with better diction and range. Amelia was new to Nashville then (following development years in Boston), and I’d soon meet her in the swirl of the neighborhood and music scene. She proved to be a super-cool, positive person and a tuned-in artist who had a lot more in her than just one debut album. Her 2006 project Black Doves won her tons of acclaim and new opportunities. Her most recent project is the impressive and personal Old Postcard. A recent No Depression writeup said that “she puts her heart out for all to experience and loves to connect with her audiences.”

I asked her what’s up these days, and she wrote back that the major themes of now include a new publishing deal that focuses on her TV show placements (her songs have been on Justified and other shows), plus some songs of hers being recorded by others like Anne McCue and Wild Ponies. And she’s readying a new studio album called Home Sweet Hotel for a winter release. “It is dark, moody and rocking, and explores the tug between life on the road, and life at home,” she said. “I look forward to touring the USA and overseas behind it- and know it’s going to open some doors, and keep me chasing the crazy muse that drives me.”

I first saw Amelia White and Sergio Webb almost a year ago when the East Nashvillians came to The Extended Play Sessions for the first time, so I knew that their return visit would be fabulous.

This time, they brought the Blue Souvenirs with them for a live show that was being recorded, which added immeasurably to the show.

I cannot claim to have penned the phrase "writer-songsinger" but it describes Amelia perfectly. She is a songwriter first and in fact mentioned that she had to become a good singer in order to give her songs the performances they deserve.

She played in Boston's underground (i.e., the T) before moving to Nashville about 13 years ago and the move has clearly agreed with her. Surveying her four most recent albums, the music gets tighter yet freer with each release. She has a new album, Home Sweet Hotel, due in early winter and plans to run a crowdfunding campaign around it.

Sergio Webb, meanwhile, is an in-demand session guitarist who performs with many of Nashville's best. White and Webb perform together frequently and have developed a musical chemistry that works. He is one of the most expressive guitarists I have ever seen, despite his unassuming demeanor offstage. When the band was introduced as "Amelia White with Sergio Webb and the Blue Souvenirs," he clarified that he is a Blue Souvenir. 

The other Blue Souvenirs are Marco Giovino (drums, vocals), Russell Chudnofsky (guitar, vocals), and Richard Gates (bass), all based in the Boston area. I hope to see them -- together or separately -- again soon.

White's songs are clearly steeped in the country music tradition, yet I think that even people who say they hate country music would like them. She puts her heart out for all to experience and loves to connect with her audiences.

This was, I believe, the first time they had all performed as a group, or possibly the first time in a long time. They sounded wonderful, although most of the songs required a second recording because they were not happy with the first. This was the beauty -- for the performer -- of this not being a true concert. The band are perfectionists who wanted the songs to sound as good as possible, and I think the retakes stemmed from the fact that they do not perform together on a regular basis. To the audience, though, they sounded great the first time!

It would be worth your while to delve into Amelia White's music, and especially to see her live. She does not play in the Boston area a lot, but she does tour with Webb. Who knows, perhaps they'll add the rest of the Blue Souvenirs in the future. Regardless, this was a terrific night of very high-quality music from some incredibly talented, nice musicians.

This review was originally published on Suze Reviews the Blues. Click here to see photos of this fantastic show.

Just a night as usual on the road. pull in around 8 pm,,, having driven 8 hours.

Had to get half way to gig. Sergio drank a beer or two in the car (shhh) and we almost had to call the coast guard going through an hour long downpour with some tornado warning lingering…

bad weather from Tx heading east. It cleared up. 

we are heading to Silver Spring, MD. to play a show with Mr. Walter “Magnet and Steel” Egan, one step closer to my Stevie Nick’s obsession. Damn.

The Days in is clean if musty and right across the street is Pizza and an asian Hibachi Grill with a broken neon sign-maybe not!

But next door, a goodwill, and a Kroger OH YES. 

9pm now, and putting on my pink and purple fancy PJ pants, and feasting on cheap pinot grigio, 

hummus, carrots and crackers, I am about to settle in for Dateline? 

A knock on the door and there’s Sergio having bought me a new /used bowling bag

with the bowling ball intact- he’s been shopping, and I’m the recipient.

We shall make a grand entrance tomorrow night at Dave Galinski’s SLIGO CAFE 

and Walter Egan is sure to open up his inner secrets about Stevie…