ALBUM REVIEW: ‘And Southern Star’ Finds Mikaela Davis at Home With Harp and Harmonies

To play and maneuver an instrument like the harp is a feat, but to do so while simultaneously singing elegant, shimmering harmonies is a mesmerizing skill to behold. Mikaela Davis makes it look easy at the transportive live shows she has become known for putting on with her band in the five years since her debut, Delivery (ND review).

Mikaela Davis (photo by Wyndham Garnett)

Her much-anticipated follow-up, And Southern Star, is the culmination of all the fine-tuning of that live band sound, which has evolved into a delightful, jam-heavy version of the groovy pop of which she had already proved an astounding command. The guitar licks have gotten trippy-er, the melodies a little more psychedelic, there are cascading flutes. This should come as no surprise given the stages she has shared over the past few years, including with Bob Weir and Phil Lesh. Davis’ silken vocals and those hypnotic harp strokes remain ever-present, though, and ground her arrangements not in some tie-dye-soaked Woodstockian world but right here, right now.

Co-written alongside her cohort of bandmates and friends — drummer Alex Coté, guitarist Cian McCarthy, bassist Shane McCarthy, and steel guitarist Kurt Johnson — And Southern Star, with its dazzling sonic textures, is evidence of a fruitful collaboration. The band tells stories of the pains and pleasures of growing up, perfectly pairing Davis’ vocals with melodies that never contain them, but rather let them fly.

The revelatory “Home in the Country,” with its sun-drenched pedal steel curls, finds two lovers with a tumultuous history coming back together and settling in the idyllic open air of a rural haven. The enchanting “Cinderella,” with its loping guitars and harp, is a kind of dreamy, feminist fairytale, shattering the glass shoe in favor of a little freedom. “Don’t Stop Now” is a joyful plea for progression in a backwards world. “One of These Days” and “Saturday Morning” are soothing balms filled with the promise that things can and will get better.

It is no simple thing to find where you fit and make it your own. At its core, And Southern Star is a story about an artist coming into herself, something Davis has been inching toward in the many singles she has released since Delivery. It is also a collection of songs that feels designed to be played live — Davis and her band’s true sweet spot — as if all that energy from all those rooms were channeled into recording it. This self-assuredness that she’s just where she belongs is best expressed on “Leave It Alone,” the album’s infectious finale:

Yesterday I drew a line
Gonna stay on the other side
Moving out where the sun will shine
I’ll be back in my own time.

Mikaela Davis’ And Southern Star is out Aug. 4 on Kill Rock Stars.