The album opens with "Copperhill," which immediately establishes a cool groove, a strong pulse. "You can see the scar where they dug the heart/Out of the mountainside." It's a song of the destruction of the land, a powerful start to the album. "The trees are bare and the land is wasted/Can't hear the song of the whippoorwill." This country is a mess right now, with no one at the helm who has any sense of its history or its future, no one who cares about the land. How did we get here? "Look what they've done, look what they've done." It seems that's all we can do, remark on the terrible things they've done rather than stop them from doing them. We can feel the land's pain in this song. "Power Lines" also opens in a somber place, with a more intimate, more personal feel. "One minute you're here/Next minute, you've flown/And when you're out of reach, I'm still hanging on." We can all relate to that feeling that things are out of our control, and in this song even the relationship finds the person just hanging on, realizing that the other person holds the power. We hear the ache in her voice, and in the steel guitar work. This track features a captivating vocal performance.
The first line of "Maybe New Mexico," the album's title track, is "I spent a night in Tucumcari." Hearing the name of that town makes me think of Little Feat's "Willin'," the first song I ever heard that mentions that town. It's not the only New Mexico town in this song's lyrics. "Maybe I'll get lost in Las Cruces/Or wander down to some border town/Or find my way up to Santa Fe/I know it's a long shot, but God I hope/That maybe New Mexico can help me let you go." We can feel that desire, that need. New Mexico can help you forget a lot. Helene Cronin delivers a moving vocal performance, and there is sort of easygoing vibe to this track. There is also a bit of humor in the lines, "And if this don't work/There is always Arizona or California." "Maybe New Mexico" was written by Helene Cronin, Lisa Carver and Scott Sean White. Then "Rifleman" explores the character of a soldier, and the way war has affected him, the damage it inflicted. "They sent him off a boy, brought him back a wreck." And as the song continues, we begin to understand the narrator's relationship to this man. This is another powerful number, featuring some good guitar work.
"We got roots that go back generations/And dreams that stretch for miles," Helene Cronin sings in "People." As the title suggests, this song is about people, all people. Our differences, our similarities. These days our similarities seem to have been forgotten. "Such a mess, but so beautiful/People." It's a positive song at a time when few of us feel very positive about people. "Trying to change the world/Before the world spins around again." Ah, good luck to us all. "People" was written by Helene Cronin and Scott Sean White (Scott Sean White recorded and released his own version of this song). It's followed by "Switzerland," a song that looks at a different sort of war, a different sort of battle. Here a couple is splitting, without any neutral land to retreat to, to meet to work things out. "But now everybody's talking and calling us/They're taking sides, they're dividing up/Some are picking you, and some will stick with me/Let the fallout fall, we're both losing friends/There's no neutral ground, in their defense." "Switzerland" was written by Helene Cronin and Cheley Tackett.
"Not The Year" eases in, taking light steps, then asking, rather gently, "What if you were told on the day you were born/The day you'd die, just not the year/Would it make you think, would it make you change/What you push away, what you pull near?" How would you spend that day each year? Life is so short, and we don't know when the end is coming, just that it is certainly coming. Death has been on my mind lately. It is something we all do have in common. Our "time is tick-ticking," and I marvel at the ways some people choose to spend that time, making things difficult for those who are different from them. Why do they spend their brief time on this planet causing harm? Would those people do things differently if they knew the day they'd die? I don't know. I don't think those people ponder such things. I don't think they are keen on self-reflection or growth. But for those who do have the ability to contemplate, this is one of the album's most striking songs. And one of the things that makes it striking is the gentle way it is delivered. "Not The Year" was written by Helene Cronin, Lisa Carver and Scott Sean White.
"Aint That Just Like A Man" features some nice work on steel guitar. Check out its opening lines: "He tells me I'm pretty when I don't feel pretty/When I don't see what he sees." I need to play this song for my girlfriend. I'm baffled when she fails to see how beautiful she is. This is a sweet love song that rings true, and will likely make you want to take your sweetheart into your arms and not let go. "He don't always know what to say when I'm crying/But he lets me cry on his chest/And most of the time can't fix my worries or problems/But he ain't afraid of my mess." Oh, how I wish I knew what to say, and how to fix the world for my girlfriend. I suspect most men feel that way about the women they love. This one was written by Helene Cronin and Nicole Lewis. Then "Maker's Mark" builds in power, rolling forward, and we feel part of that movement, its power becoming our own. "'Cause I want to leave this place better than I found it/Take what breaks my heart and wrap my arms around it/I want to put a little good out into the world/Shine a little light in the dark." I wish everyone felt that way. Maybe the little kindnesses we extend to others will have some impact. I know sometimes a stranger can turn my day around just by letting me in when I'm entering traffic. If we all did these things, I bet the world would be a better place.
As "Dear Life" begins, there is a feeling of melancholy. And when the vocals come in, the lyrics address life directly: "Dear life, I've been thinking about you lately/Because lately you've been hard to understand/I've tried, but I don't know where this is going/Because none of this is going like I planned." I'm guessing we can all relate to this song, especially when all we can do "is keep holding on for dear life." Helene Cronin delivers a beautiful performance here, one that is certain to move you. Another couple of lines that stand out for me are "Dear life, even when you're almost perfect/You still don't give a damn about my happiness." That's something that's hard to accept sometimes, that the universe doesn't care about us, one way or another. It is an indifferent world, not necessarily a cruel one. We're alone out here, so let's make the best of it, folks. This is a gorgeous, sad, honest song, featuring some beautiful work on cello. Helene Cronin then switches gears with a song in which the universe, or God, does care and comes checking in on us. "God stopped by my house today/He's always catching me off guard." She admits here that she has questions: "I never understood/Why he lets the bad things happen if he's really good." I understand wishing there were a god who cares about us, someone watching out for us, someone understanding our troubles, our worries, our failures. It is highly unlikely that such a being exists, but I understand wanting it to. Either way, this is another beautiful song. "None of us ever asked to be here," Helene then begins the album's final song, "Visitors." We are all here together, through chance, and so why do all our common experiences and elements fail to make us treat each other better? The line "We're all passing through the same revolving door" reminds me of a song Leonard Cohen used to cover, "Passing Through." "We're just visitors here," Helene reminds us. And this is it, folks. It is so terribly brief, and there is probably nothing afterward, so start being kinder to each other.
CD Track List
- Copperhill
- Power Lines
- Maybe New Mexico
- Rifleman
- People
- Switzerland
- Not The Year
- Ain't That Just Like A Man
- Maker's Mark
- Dear Life
- God Stopped By
- Visitors
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