ALBUM REVIEW: Emily Nenni Confident Behind the Wheel of ‘Drive & Cry’

It wasn’t long ago that honky-tonk heroine Emily Nenni set her time-tinted croon against the dazzling prairiescape of On the Ranch, her 2022 release where songs of hard work and hard-won wisdom freely roamed (ND review). For her follow-up, Drive & Cry, dust-laden corrals and weathered rail fences have become beer-stained floors and neon-lined horizons as the singer-songwriter makes her way back to Nashville, back to her dive-bar beginnings, and back to the people and places she calls home.

Nenni may no longer be On the Ranch, but that doesn’t mean she’s any less back in the saddle with Drive & Cry. Rather than taking the reins, she’s taking the wheel, steering listeners through her most exciting effort yet.

Coming to life with the good-timing romp “Get to Know Ya,” Drive & Cry is immediately captivating. The artist’s intoxicating lilt is like a come-hither finger, beckoning the ear and ensnaring the soul as she asserts herself across the album’s dozen tracks. She sounds at-home from the start, comfortable enough to let loose and also let a glimmer of vulnerability peek through.

One moment, she’s full throttle, fired up, and raring to go on charming offerings like the chug-a-lugging title track and the holy-rolling barroom ballad “Rootin’ For You.” In another, she’s windows-down, cruising through languid waltzes like “Lay of the Land” and quavering epics like “We Sure Could Two Step.”

Nenni can say it like it is on the brash and bluesy “I Don’t Have to Like You” and the horn-flecked “I Don’t Need You,” both songs radiating a been-there-done-that kind of swagger. But on a sweeping tune like ‘Changes,’ she can also pump the breaks and admit she’s still learning, professing “I sure as hell ain’t ever one and done.”

At whatever speed, though, a shiny new confidence and unshakable spirit emits from every song, each one crackling with its own sharp wisdom and sage advice.

As Nenni swerves between lush melodies and jaunty ditties, steely sentiments and intimate words, she maps an album that is honest and feisty, a little messy but never off course. Drive & Cry is a freshly sharpened display of the artist’s already singular talents, marking another vintage-sheened opus for the road.

Emily Nenni’s Drive & Cry is out May 3 on New West Records.