S.G. Goodman’s Jim James Produced Debut Explores Her Rural Kentucky Roots

S.G. Goodman | Old Time Feeling | (Verve Forecast)
4 out of 5 stars

It won’t take long after hitting play on singer/songwriter S.G. Goodman’s debut to hear what made My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James want to help get her nascent career off the ground.

On the opening “Space and Time” Goodman breaks into a sparse, swampy guitar line singing “I never want to leave this world/without saying I love you.” Her darkly powerful voice combines the dulcet tones of Patsy Cline with the authentic backwoods sensibility of Bobbie Gentry. It’s a near perfect introduction to a fresh and powerful voice in alt-country/Americana. Produced by Goodman with help from James, the ten tracks conjure a muggy, Southern mood. The stripped-down, even raw, instrumentation also displays her shadowy, emotional vocals and lyrics, the latter often about her rural Kentucky roots. More specifically, some tracks like “Supertramp” are concerned with moving away from her hometown, albeit with reservations, as she sings “You better hold onto me/I’ll be taking off/don’t be surprised when you see these bones rambling on.”

But there is something touching and pure when she opens up to a lover in “Kitchen Floor” “… I’ve seen the sign/here it comes /this could be the love/that I’ll never recover from,” with just the sparest of accompaniment. That provides room for Goodman’s voice to fill in the spaces left by weeping and haunting pedal steel lines.

There’s some rocking too, especially in the Stones-styled title track, a splash of bluesy roots guitar with pumping piano as Goodman slashes out “we’re living off of gas station delicacies/it’s what they’re feeding us” borrowing a snarl from X’s Exene Cervenka. Goodman is most effective on the ominous “The Way I Talk” which shifts from a bare bones, slow thumping bass and drum riff to exploding in shards of feedbacked electric guitar with the lyrics “and her brother’s back at home tending to her daddy’s land/he’s farming for the businessman/who takes the profit from his hand.” It’s the album’s most fiery and unexpected musical moment. 

The loping “If It Ain’t Me Babe” which references both Neil Young and his Harvest Moon album with “sing Neil ‘til the song gets old…I’ll see you in a harvest moon” best reflects Goodman’s sound. It’s equal parts swamp rock, indie folk and country, leavened with greasy, Creedence-inflected dusky rock and roll. The sound is full and husky even in a ballad like “Tender Kind” where Goodman’s voice is at its most vulnerable as a weeping pedal steel finds the tune’s lonely heart.  

As debut albums from new artists go, Old Time Feeling is an impressive, occasionally riveting introduction. Goodman rejects any sense of smoothing out rough edges, delivering a beautifully crafted, sometimes jagged showcase of her lyrical, musical and especially vocal talents.

It’s an audacious start to what will likely be a fertile career.