I am sorry, Amanda, but we are just about done. I found you and The Honeycutters when you were struggling to become known. I loved writing about the best of the underdogs but underdog you are no more. Not only has the last year been good to you, it has vaulted you into exalted company— musicians who no longer have to worry all that much about bookings and recording and all that. Truth is, you don’t need me anymore. Your rise is imminent. In fact, this album should do it.
I wonder why people didn’t pick up on the band when you released 2009’s Irene? That was a tremendous first effort, if first it really was. Certain songs still go through my head on a regular basis—
Next came When Bitter Met Sweet. Could you have created a better followup? Not that I could hear. Your sound was coming together. The band sounded great. You were on a roll.
I admit to being a bit dumbstruck. There was something about the ease which washed over me every time I heard your songs. I was becoming addicted. But you couldn’t stop there, could you? You had to pile Me Oh My on top of everything else. It was a sweet piling on, but…
Not satisfied, you had to put me On the Ropes. Ha! See what I did there? Oh, what an album. I could see writers starting to pick up on what you were doing. I could see the momentum building. I began to feel claustrophobic. Most artists I find hit peaks and valleys but you guys were on an upswing which did not seem to want to peak.
I thought The Honeycutters had peaked a couple of albums ago but you hadn’t and now you have created an album using every good thing you had in the past while separating the names. I know. You will tell me that separating names does not change the band but it does. I hated it when Smokey got top billing with The Miracles and when Frankie Valli became the accepted frontman for The Four Seasons. I suppose it didn’t hurt the music but it was a sign. Maybe the sign that they were ready to pull away from the pack. God knows they deserved what they got and so do you, but within me there is always a sadness with the success. In that you don’t need me anymore. People who have a much larger readership than do I are finally finding you and, truth be told, there are unknown and lesser-knowns out there who need my help.
My God, you sure did it, though. I waited until I had down time to listen and it was a cool mountain stream of awesome. Song after song of music and lyrics written as only you can put them together. I suppose others might not hear it, but I do. You have a sound, a sound that strikes deep. A Country Rock sound. Not an alt.country or country sound. Country Rock. Music that came out of the late-sixties and early-seventies back-to-the-earth movement. Sure, you twist it to your style, but that is what it is. Music written and performed from the heart. Right up there with Robert Thomas Velline’s Nothin’ Like a Sunny Day and Johnny Rivers’ Home Grown and Uncle Jim’s Music’s first album. So Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters will do for an album title but only because it is as good an album as you have recorded to-date. In fact, it’s a beauty.
I remember when you were little known and I wrote about The Honeycutters very positively and Bill Pillmore, keyboard and guitar man with the original lineup of Cowboy— a co-founder, in fact— sent me a message saying that he had seen you perform in small clubs in Asheville and how impressed he was. Cowboy has always been one of my favorites. When Bill speaks, I listen. And then when you kept plugging away, getting better with each release… God, but it is cool to watch artists you love make an impact.
But now… well, read the above, I guess. Man, I really love the new stuff. Just wanted you to know.
