CD Review: Jordan Rainer – Crossfire – by Jeffrey Kurtis for Country Music News International Magazine & Radio Show
In a word, great country music can best
be described as honest. However, when you dig deeper into that very vague
description, you’ll discover that it doesn’t necessarily mean an exact
imitation of life but rather how much the vocal delivery pulls you into the
lyric to give the song the believability factor. For something like that, we can
turn to Jordan Rainer’s new single “Crossfire.”
Co-written by Rainer, Heide Raye and
Josh Gleave, “Crossfire” tells a first-person story of a woman being cheated on
and extracting the ultimate revenge. Though this subject matter has certainly
been done before, Rainer has found a way to craft it in such a way that it
feels fresh and exciting.
Though she never states how she first
suspected her husband’s cheating, the opening verse sees her unassumingly
hanging clothes out on the line, but more so using the chore as a way to visually
capture the evidence with her own eyes as she watches him sneaking in and out
of the neighbor girls house to get some sugar on the side.
The story quickly moves into its next,
fatal phase with her having his whiskey waiting for him when he comes home – as
she does every night – but this time it’s been laced with cyanide; Leading to
her burying him in the garden out back of their house.
As we weave further into the story, the
small-town gossip mill is buzzing with the sheriff noticing that it smells
funny, Betty Lou exclaiming that she saw our heroin with a shovel, Mary Jo
stating that she heard a shot, etc. The gossip eventually bleeds into truth when
she’s arrested after the neighbor’s dog discovered the body hidden in the
garden.
Johnny Cash has a catalog of songs like these,
and he was able to perfectly bring a brash, I don’t care attitude to the lyrics
with his vocal delivery – think songs like “Cocaine Blues.” Similarly, Jordan
Rainer has been able to capture an innocence in her delivery while fully
knowing that she’s guilty of the crime. It makes sense then, that her Facebook
and Instagram pages includes the description, “Nashville’s Woman in Black.”
“Crossfire” clearly showcases a
songwriter who took the time to make sure that each line made sense to the
telling of the overall story, but it’s also a clear indication of an artist
knowing all the proper ways to punch emotion into those lines; whether with her
vocals or the moodiness of the instrumentation. This know-how gives “Crossfire”
that honest touch, which in a word, is the best description of great country
music!
Take a listen to “Crossfire” at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6RNgRmkE7g