Ain't Through Honky Tonkin' Yet (Signature Sounds, 2023)

Classic country fans have their own modern-day hero in Brennen Leigh. She's proven adept at storytelling, personal songs in in 2020 "Prairie Love Letter" and her affection for Texas and Western Swing on 2022's "Obsessed with the West." Yet arguably the now Nashville-based Leigh goes deeper than ever into full bore classic strains on "Ain't Through Honky Tonkin' Yet."

The themes are here: drinking songs ("The Bar Should Say Thanks"), trucker songs ("Carole With An E"), cheating songs ("Mississippi Rendezvous"), dancefloor raveups (title track, "Running Out of Hope, Arkansas") and tearjerkers ("Somebody's Drinking About You," "When Lonely Came to Town.")

The authenticity is attested to by the cast involved. Produced by Chris Scruggs, musicians include Marty Stuart on mandolin, Aaron Till on fiddle, and Rodney Crowell on backing vocals. Leigh enlists a notable coterie of co-writers in Silas Lowe, Tessy Lou Williams (Miss Tess), Noel McKay, Erin Enderlin and Mary Bragg. Leigh doesn't have a powerful voice like Patty Loveless, but she has an instinctive feel for the idiom with her phrasing and consistently sounds natural, never overreaching.

Similar accolades should go to Scruggs in this totally acoustic album, stripped of any excess, with each note seemingly carefully placed. The title track indicates that Leigh must have listened to the greats while growing up. The melody evokes George Jones and the piano sounds like Hargus "Pig" Robbins. Her ability to carry a melody and display impressive vocal range is exemplified in the song co-written with Bragg, "Mississippi Rendezvous." She confesses to having a true affinity for trucker songs and absorbed that vocabulary for "Carole With An E." Although the CB radio clip at the end is a bit cliché, think back to the golden age of radio trucker songs where those clips were usually there too.

It all adds up to a gem of the first order. When someone asks you where has all the classic country music gone, point them here.