Album Review: John Paul White – The Hurting Kind (Single Lock)

You probably know John Paul White as one half of late, lamented The Civil Wars. But, with the release of his third solo album, you should reacquaint yourself with this fine singer-songwriter.

Having moved from Nashville to Florence, Alabama, John Paul White has set up shop just a short way from the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals. But despite the fact that he has recorded The Hurting Kind in and around Muscle Shoals, there’s still a lot of Nashville in White’s music.

But it’s the Nashville of the late 50s and early 60s, often referred to as “Countrypolitan” that seems to pulse through the 10 songs found here. It’s the sound associated with Chet Atkins, Patsy Cline and George Jones, often recorded by Owen Bradley at Bradley’s Barn.

Interestingly, while working in a genre so steeped in the past, the album’s opening tune, The Good Old Days, asks specifically, “What’s so good about the good old days?”. Tellingly, the track sounds more like contemporary Americana than vintage Country.  It’s also one of the strongest songs on the album with an instantly memorable hook and urgently strummed acoustic guitars, with fiddles mixed in for flavour.

“The past is ash and dust, our best days are in front of us”, White sings confidently.

But then the following track, I Wish I Could Write You A Song, plunges back into that past with the help of legendary Country artist Bill Anderson, now in his 80s, co-writing the tune with White. All the trademarks of the Countrypolitan sound are here, the twangy guitar, the weeping pedal steel,, the sweeping strings and the Floyd Cramer-style piano.  Its sounds beautiful, and Whites vocal comes close to mirroring the best of Roy Orbison.

The album vacillates between the old and the new with songs like Heart Like A Kite, Yesterday’s Love and You Lost Me (another Anderson co-write) capturing that retro sound, while others such as the title track and The Long Way Home sound  like the best contempoaray Americana.

In fact, The Long Way Home is one of the finest new songs I’ve heard in a long time. Paired with The Good Old Days it makes for a couple of 5 star songs on one album, and that’s a rare thing these days.

Another highlight is This Isn’t Gonna End Well, co-written with another Nashville veteran, Bobby Braddock, and served up as a duet with Lee Ann Womack. Close your eyes and you’d swear you were listening to Roy and Loretta harmonizing.

For me, the only song that didn’t quite gel was James, a tearjerker about a shell-shocked Marine returning home and struggling to re-introduce himself to his wife and child.

But overall, John Paul White’s The Hurting Kind is an album where great songwriting meets great performance.

Marty Duda