Lonesome Weary Blues showcases him at perhaps his most accessible, as it's a cover album of traditional folk songs. A musical scholar, Bachman is academically invested in the folk history of Virginia. With seven tracks at 24 minutes, Lonesome Weary Blues serves as an ideal doorway into Bachman's catalog. The prolific guitarist is known for the throwback folk of his acoustic and lap-steel instrumentals. If you already know Daniel Bachman, then you know exactly what to expect from this, sonically speaking. Here, Victoria isn't afraid to pull any of her punches lyrically, explicitly referencing her own Blackness, seemingly speaking directly to a white audience at times on tracks like the closer, "Undercover Ghetto Girl," her frankness and openness hopefully not lost on the listeners that need to hear it. You have the samba-style guitar tracks like the opener "Down in Virginia" and "What Have You Got to Lose?" Then there are piano-heavy compositions like "Guilty" and the theatrical "Perhaps," along with more modern-sounding beats of "Mirror, Mirror" and "Black Looks Better on Me." Victoria is obviously well-versed in the music of the past, employing jazz chord changes that often evoke the mood of an anachronistic cabaret.
There are a handful of different methods at work here amongst these dozen tracks. To either its fault or its strength, the album almost reads as a musical unto itself. The NYC-based singer-songwriter is using her mid-century musical prowess and combining it with lyrics that directly deal with her own experience as a Black woman in America. Then We Rebuild has crossover appeal from those who enjoy composers like Angelo Badalamenti and Jean-Michel Jarre to more modern songwriters like Cat Power.įrom the first notes in Love & Justice, you know that you're in for something captivatingly unique from Grace Victoria. The only other guest on the album was Andrew Todd, who played the organ and is also the executive producer of the EP. This duality is apparent in the way she changes from tracks like "The Trees Are On Fire" with its traditional song structure, to "2:42," an instrumental jazz-inspired track featuring saxophonist Joe Cieslak. She states that it is an album about love, consciousness, and chaos fueled by the old world ideology of Plato's Twin Flame.
The album highlights her multi-instrumental skills where she is not only the vocalist, but plays the violin, viola, cello, and guitar as well. She starts the EP off with two shorter songs, but once she has you hooked, you are on board for tracks that are up to eight minutes. On Then We Rebuild, Barrett creates her own vision of what a solo album should be. Many are familiar with her work in The Mighty Sea, Potwhole, and various other collaborations. He debut solo EP from Erie musician Abby Barrett (Abigail Lynn) is both beautiful and haunting.