Artist:     Will Kimbrough

Album:      I Like It Down Here

Label:     Soundly Music Records

Release Date:     4.19.2019

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Will Kimbrough returns with a truly excellent solo release, ten tracks that span the genres while always remaining firmly anchored, rooted in tradition and rip-roaring quality. As one of the USA’s finest sidemen, a guy never out of work and featured alongside the likes of Rodney Crowell, EmmyLou Harris and Todd Snider, Kimbrough has worked for many years with the cream of the Nashville Americana and country crop. For a handful of years more recently, he has been working hard with the bands Willie Sugarcapps and Daddy, but has now elected to go it alone with a solo release that takes him to another musical place and level, with blues sliding around the mix at almost every turn.

Kimbrough’s fretwork chops and class is always center-stage while his vocals are always up to the job. Joined by guests Shemekia Copeland, Brigitte DeMeyer and Sugarcane Jane, Kimbrough has turned out an album packed with zinging—at times stinging—lyrics and hauntingly memorable Southern themes and echoes; I Like It Down Here towers as a tribute to Kimbrough’s genuine talents as a composer, musician, artist and producer. The title track dealing with a laid-back southern soul theme and ambiguity is followed by the reflective track, “Alabama,” a breathtaking offering focusing on a Deep South shameful episode and theme that really brings home the message carried through the release—a sharp eye on the tormented soul of recent US Southern history and tradition that is bound to make many think again and anew, and maybe also shudder at the thought.

Kimbrough reckons the release is a reflection of his at times conflicted and troubled thoughts on the state of his old home state, Alabama, and the political uncertainties that now rattle around down South, an area he still feels deeply connected with and loves dearly. Whatever, the overall thinking, I Like It Down Here is one of those outstanding albums that holds up and displays maturity and power from start to finish.

—Iain Patience