ALBUM REVIEW: Drew Holcomb Draws Us in for ‘Strangers No More’

At the best of times, music brings people together from all walks of life in the pursuit of a good time, and that’s the philosophy driving Strangers No More, the new record from Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors. It’s there in the title: A promise by Holcomb that once you’re done listening, you’ll know him and his band better.

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors (photo by Ashtin Paige)

You may call that introspection, but Strangers No More is more like an invitation: From the first notes of the album’s opener, “Fly,” Holcomb and his bandmates — guitarist and banjoist Nathan Dugger, drummer Will Sayles, pianist Ian Miller, upright bassist Rich Brinsfield, and synth bassist Cason Cooley — usher us into their concept like a neighbor waving you into their home.

They’re good hosts. They want the audience at ease and open to hearing them play as Holcomb sings about his ups and downs and hopes and prescriptions. He has a story to tell, but Strangers No More isn’t his story as much as his exhortation to  listeners to reflect on their own while Holcomb sings about himself. “You got to find your people,” Holcomb hums on the second track, “Find Your People,” “the ones that get the joke / who understand what you’re saying before a word is spoke.” The song functions like a filter for the rest of the album, even though it’s preceded by “Fly” — a necessary introduction to Holcomb’s humility and humanity.

Holcomb, after all, is just a human being like the rest of us, “nothing more nothing less,” as he puts it in “Fly”’s final moments. He has woes like us (as on “Troubles”), and he has moments where he’s awestruck by his fortune and for what life might have in store for him (as on “Gratitude” and “Possibility”). What he’s trying to do with his vulnerability is exemplify shared values: If the idea behind Strangers No More is unity, he seems to reason, then he may as well lead by example and speak to the sort of sentiments and experiences common to American life. That he’s able to harmonize this massive range of sensation with a sound that goes from doleful (“Fly,” “Troubles”) to upbeat (“That’s On You, That’s On Me”) is remarkable.

If Strangers No More is in need of anything, it’s a song reordering. The closer, “Free (Not Afraid to Die),” belongs toward the end of the record, but Holcomb and company miss the opportunity to pull together their theme with “Dance With Everybody” — a whole damn shindig packed into 3 minutes, where the band calls its audience to boogie in unabashed, unpretentious joy. “Put aside our differences, lace up our shoes,” Holcomb impels us, “Let’s narrow the distance between me and you.” Ironically, the best thing Holcomb could’ve done for Strangers No More is put more distance between the album’s start and finish, but that doesn’t keep the party from being any less worth attending.

Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors’ Strangers No More is out June 7 on Magnolia Music.