Album Review: Chely Wright’s ‘I Am The Rain’
As a fan who has been there since 1994’s Woman In The Moon, I am glad to say that the wait was worth it….but Chely, please don’t make us wait six years the next time!
Six years have passed since Chely Wright last released new music with her 2010 disc Lifted Off The Ground. Of course, that has also got to seem like somewhat of a lifetime ago, as the release of the album coincided with her decision to make public that she was a lesbian. Since then, the singer has married, became a mother, and has also stood up for a wide variety of LGBT causes and charities.
Finally, at long last, the Kansas native returns with new music, and I couldn’t be more excited to tell you about it. From a standpoint of social activism, I am not going to begin to tell you that I know what Wright has gone through and endured over the past six (and longer) years, so I am not going to choose this forum to start now. I am simply going to keep this review focused on where it should be – the music. And, the new music from Chely Wright is as thought-provoking and as emotionally raw as anything she has ever released before.
The singer scores highest here when she lays her heart on the line. Performances such as “Where Will You Be” and “Inside” reveal a depth and a warmth that is unlike anything she has ever recorded before. Take a listen to these words, and the deep and thoughtful lyrics will get you dead center in the heart. She handles the lyrics of both tracks as a person who has been there. Ditto those thoughts with the wonderfully evocative performance that the singer demonstrates with the wistful “Pain,” which – at the very least – is one of the top two or three moments here. This is a recording that Wright couldn’t have made work on earlier efforts like Single White Female or Let Me In. Life has to knock you around a few notches for you to really be able to get it, and man, does she ever! This may be the performance of her career.
She also shows her vulnerability on “Blood and Bones and Skin,” and proves her story-telling talents on “Mexico” and the stunningly gorgeous “Helona,” which has kind of a western feel to it that would make Marty Robbins proud.
As a fan who has been there since 1994’s Woman In The Moon, I am glad to say that the wait was worth it….but Chely, please don’t make us wait six years the next time!
