CD Review: Caitlyn Smith – High
by Chris Keaton for Country Music News International Magazine
- INTRO
- HIGH
- DREAMIN’S FREE
- GOOD AS US
- DOWNTOWN BABY
- NOTHING AGAINST YOU
- MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE
- I DON’T LIKE THE WORLD WITHOUT YOU
This album by Caitlyn Smith is a testament to excellent songwriting, singing, performing and recording.  All these boxes are checked off with excellence and integrity. But for a moment let’s focus on the singing.
As we say down south, “this girl can SAING!!!” She is an absolute powerhouse with great vocal strength, range and emotion. At times raw, other times sweet and gentle. On the title track, HIGH (which she co-wrote with Miley Cyrus) she reaches all the way down, deep in her soul and belts out the lyric in an honest and evocative way.
The sweetness shows up on the next track, DREAMIN’S FREE, and when she delivers the line “Baby, we ain’t rich but the dreamin’s free” you can feel the angst and emotion in that invitation to pay attention to what really matters. She weaves in and out of the chords creating an incredibly curvy path straight to the heart of the listener. And when she whispers the question, “What’s it gonna be,” if you ain’t hooked you may not be alive.
Her songwriting is absolutely spot on (she’s had songs recorded by Miley Cyrus, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton as well as Meghan Trainor and John Legend to drop just a few names). This album doesn’t disappoint in that box either. One listen to MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE and you’ll get it. (Again, if you don’t perhaps you should check and see if you’re still breathing.)
The spirits of Nashville live through this album with the reverberation of the sounds of the giants who recorded before her in the hallowed walls of Jack Clement’s Sound Emporium recording studios. Although Jack is gone and hasn’t owned the building for quite awhile, one feels his presence whenever you enter the building and every recording and person that leaves the building carries a bit of his magic.
Thank you, Caitlyn Smith for sharing your wonderful gifts with all of us.
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