Fancy Hagood has been in the UK touring with CMAT and came through Cambridge in November. After finishing shooting some photos of both artists, I quickly saved his latest release to my phone for the bus ride home. Released in last year American Spirit is the Nashville based artist’s follow up to 2021’s Southern Curiosity.
The album opens with a tale about falling hard for another man, with vocal soaring high alongside a jangly country acoustic guitar and lovely melody.
The second track Isn’t That Life pulls in Michelle Branch to help him remind us that the pain in life is often a useful lesson, even if it doesn’t always feel that way.
Saviour Self explores his battle between faith in science or religion, and that both try to make you ignore the other, coming to the conclusion that you have to decide for yourself and have faith in yourself. All to a lovely plucked guitar tune with a nice warm tone, punctuated by eerie strings.
Later in the album he calls in help from the blue grass stars Watkins Family Hour, on The Chase who help create a thick soundscape that could take you straight into a dusty bar somewhere a little too far from a big city in The South. Which will soon have you tapping your town and humming along.