Casey Penn - One Step Away

by Zena Grieg

published: 26 / 5 / 2023

Label: WTW Music
Format: CD

Reflective debut solo album from Arkansas-based songwriter and musician, Casey Penn who puts a refreshing new take on the bluegrass genre

Review

Casey Penn, an Arkansas-based songwriter and musician, has just released a debut solo album, “One Step Away”, co-produced with Chris Latham and Mark Hodges. This is a record in a distinctive bluegrass style, underpinned by soulful Appalachian music with folk, gospel and country overtones. The songs are a colourful mix of nostalgic storytelling, Penn’s richly expressive vocals referencing empathy and emotion around perennial themes - family, loss, salvation, love and decency, accompanied by a skilful array of musicians. Songs to listen out for in this twelve-track collection include: the scene-setting ‘Journey to Providence’ with its easy-going guitar and fiddle; the jaunty single ‘We Go Together Like A Guitar And A Fiddle’; ‘Little Lives’ with its acoustic country vibe; traditional country heartbreak song ‘The Blade’; ‘How To Bend’ with its mournful cello, on healing from pain; a stirring duet with Tim Raybon on a cover of ‘Would These Arms Be In Your Way;' and the closer, the plaintive blues-tinged title track, written for her late, minister father, who lived his life “one step away from heaven”. Contemplative, uplifting, ‘One Step Away’ is a refreshing new take on a traditional sound by Casey Penn - a likeable and talented artist.

Track Listing:-

1 Prelude-Whispering Hope
2 Journey to Providence
3 We Go Together Like a Guitar and a Fiddle
4 Oceans
5 Little Lives
6 The Blade
7 How to Bend
8 Chasing Rainbows
9 Winner Every Time
10 Would These Arms Be in Your Way
11 Dark and Desperate
12 One Step Away