The Soul of Mandy Barnett

During her career, Mandy Barnett has channeled Patsy Cline in the stage show, Always…Patsy Cline, and on her last album, I Can’t Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson (2013), she delivered a loving tribute to the country singer with captivating interpretations of his songs. While Barnett confirmed her star in the country pantheon with her work with Owen Bradley, her voice soars far higher than the universe of country music, as she demonstrates on her new album Strange Conversation. Moving leisurely between blues, pop, soul, and jazz tunes, Barnett inhabits every song with her towering vocal presence, weaving her vocal magic in every phrase and creating sonic spaces within a song’s notes that make it her own. She recorded the album at the Nutthouse in Sheffield, Alabama, and she remarks, “I was very comfortable in that studio; everything really came together there.”

For her new album, Barnett wanted to do something different than she had done in the past. “Marco Giovino wanted to do an album with me,” Barnett says. “I didn’t know him or anything about him, but he sent over a whole bunch of songs, and I was impressed with his taste and wide knowledge of music. He had a whole other genre that I don’t know anything about, these R&B and soul songs, and that made me happy. I listened to hundreds of songs, and it took us about a year; we took our time until we had ten or eleven songs we felt strongly about.” Barnett says that singing such different material energized her. “I was hearing different sounds coming out of me. It’s so cool to do a totally different style of music.”

The album opens with Barnett wrapping her smoky, sultry vocals around Mabel John’s “More Lovin’.” Her repetitive, undulating vibe mimics the swelling urgency of the chorus — “I want some more lovin’, more lovin’, more lovin’ / baby, from you” — and the unquenchable desire the singer feels for her lover. “This song was a barn burner,” Barnett says, “but I didn’t want to sing it that fast.” Doug Lancio’s slinky guitars play call and response with Tom West’s bright organ, building a funky jazz foundations for Barnett’s vocals. Barnett captures the sweet soul vibe of The Tams’ Carolina beach music classic “It’s All Right (You’re Just in Love).” Barnett’s vocals float on the ethereal background vocals of Ann McCrary, Regina McCrary, and Brandon Young, and Barnett soars high on the song’s fadeout in phrasing that echoes “Please Mr. Postman.”

The title track opens with Rudy Copeland’s screaming organ and blossoms into a slow-burning soul jazz tune. Barnett playfully opens spaces in the chorus, shouting “Baby, baby / sweet baby” as the organ trades notes with her voice. Her delivery of this song echoes the Dan Penn-Spooner Oldham-penned “Sweet Inspiration,” and you can hear echoes on Jackie DeShannon and Kim Carnes in Barnett’s vocals. John Hiatt joins Barnett for a carnivalesque “A Cowboy’s Work is Never Done,” and she slows down Neil Sedaka’s “My World Keeps Slipping Away” to capture its ache and wistfulness. The album closes with a greasy, funky take on the soul classic “Put a Chain on It.”

Strange Conversation showcases Barnett’s ability to turn every song she sings into a memorable tune. She’s able to find the unique elements within any song and to express them in her singular style, creating a new sound while remaining faithful to the spirit of the original. Barnett’s ability to work within the sonic spaces of these songs creates such familiarity with the music that she draws us intimately into it.