ALBUM REVIEW: Loud or Soft, Will Kimbrough Gets It Out of His System on ‘For the Life of Me’

Mention the name Will Kimbrough and the word “collaboration” often springs to mind, such is the long and rich list of his musical partners: Jimmy Buffett, Emmylou Harris, Todd Snider, Shemekia Copeland, and Gretchen Peters to name only some. Among all these collaborations he has an equally impressive list of solo work, For the Life of Me being his eighth solo album. In the accompanying press release he describes it as “the last in the trilogy that started with 2019’s I Like It Down Here running through 2020’s Spring Break.” Kimbrough finishes with a record that spans full-on rock anthem to quiet introspection. Never one to hold back, Kimbrough has always had a lot to say. Whether inspired by his work with those suffering from the effects of war or the state of the nation, he “had to get all this out of my system,” he explains in the press release.

Kimbrough is still collaborating, having written much of the album with others. But a common thread on this solo album is that from the wreckage wrought by life we should feel gratitude. For the Life of Me is an unqualified expression of love.

“Walking in the Valley of the Shadow” is a sunny, languid stroll into the record. A gentle backbeat aids this muse about life. Whatever has happened, Kimbrough is happy to admit, “I’m walking in the valley of the shadow / I have no cause for shame.”

Will Kimbrough (photo by Neilson Hubbard)

The title track of an album released by Scottish songwriter Dean Owens, whose collaborations with Kimbrough go back years, “Southern Wind” menaces from a distance before unleashing its full fury in an electric storm of guitars and howling chorus line. The album’s anthem peak comes in a co-write with John Hahn, “Clotilda’s on Fire,” a reminder of the brutal slave trade. Clotilda was the last known slave ship to arrive in the US when it brought captives from Africa to Mobile Bay, Alabama, in 1860. Unrelenting anger is the theme in both lyric and guitar lines that echo with reverb: “Off the Alabama coast / Clotilda’s on fire / We’re still living with her ghost.”

Though fictional, “I Don’t Want to Start a War,” co-written with Bobby Hall, is firmly footed in reality as it tells the story of a 1980s teenager who discovers the Grateful Dead. But fast forward to 2021 and this supposed Deadhead finds himself among the insurrectionists marching on the Capitol. A blend of folk and R&B swaps a “Tie dye peace sign” for a “MAGA flag.”

If those blasters are the album’s loudest elements, Kimbrough’s catharsis is no less powerful among the quieter numbers. The title track feels like a long exhalation. Strumming acoustically, Kimbrough gives up trying to understand what’s gone wrong with humankind. Instead, among some soothing harmonies, he muses, “Now I greet each new sunrise delightedly.”

If the record has a statement song, then it has to be “Every Day,” written with David Henry, a hymn of unfettered joy. A jaunty tempo, slide guitars, and harmonies declaim, “And the sun is shining brighter / Things are getting better every day.” That would seem to complete Kimbrough’s therapy, so the only question after such a complete treatment is, what’s next?

Will Kimbrough’s For the Life of Me is out May 3 via Soundly Music.