Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters Provide a Masterful Conquest
Amanda Anne Platt with Honeycutter’s pedal steel player Matt Smith at AmericanaFest 2015
Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters Provide a Masterful Conquest
By Rob Dickens
After four albums as The Honeycutters, lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Amanda Anne Platt has confidently stepped out front with a change in the band’s moniker to Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters which is also the name of the band’s new release, out via Organic Records on June 9 2017.
As well as a change in name, Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters have produced a gem of an album. The collection combines sharp and emotive songwriting with crisp production values. A successful blend of country roots and honky-tonk, but with a defining Appalachian twist. Above it all hovers Platt’s voice – laconic, sultry, pitch perfect and ultimately charming.
Performing along with Platt in The Honeycutters are Matt Smith (pedal steel and Stratocaster guitar), Rick Cooper (bass), Josh Milligan (drums and harmony vocals) and Evan Martin (keyboards and Telecaster guitar)
Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters is the group’s fifth album. It has assembled the same personnel as their previous release (2016’s On The Ropes). Tim Surrett (from Balsam Range) co-produced the new album, along with Platt. Its thirteen tracks were recorded, mixed, and mastered by Scott Barnett at Crossroads Studios in Arden, North Carolina near the band’s hometown of Asheville.
The lead track ‘Birthday Song’ was written just before she turned thirty and is a strident, reflective statement of her life so far:
“Every time it gets colder I get another year older… I start looking for lines in the bathroom mirror… but when I lay down at night I swear I must have done something right… cause I’m still so damn glad to be here”
Other highlights (there are many) include the elegiac ‘Eden’, the touring-is-life reflective ‘The Guitar Case’, the optimistic ‘Diamond in the Rough’ , the evocative ‘The Good Guys (Dick Tracy)’ and the highly personal ‘Brand New Start’.
Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters is a masterful conquest. I recommend you get yourself a copy.
Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters Track Listing:
1. Birthday Song
2. Long Ride
3. What We’ve Got
4. Diamond In The Rough
5. Eden
6. The Guitar Case
7. Learning How To Love Him
8. Brand New Start
9. Late Summer’s Child
10. The Good Guys (Dick Tracy)
11. Rare Thing
12. The Things We Call Home
13. The Road
via Dreamspider Publicity
Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters Provide a Masterful Conquest
Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters Provide a Masterful Conquest
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