There's Always a Song (Oh Boy, 2024)

Although she recorded prior to 2014, most discovered Kelsey Waldon with the release of "The Goldmine" a decade ago. Since then, the Kentuckian has produced an album every two or three years, steadily increasing her profile since signing with Oh Boy Records several years back.

With "There's Always a Song," Waldon returns to the music upon which her foundation was built: songs from Ola Belle Reed, Bill Monroe, the Carter Family and Hazel Dickens are included, each recorded with an ear toward — but not stuck in — the past.

Some allowances are made to bring this familiar material to modern audiences. 49 Winchester share "I Only Exist," with Walson and Isaac Gibson duetting on the aching ballad from Ralph Stanley. "Uncle Pen" is pulled back a couple notches, the song's fiery pace replaced by what almost passes for a dirge compared to its typical bluegrass tempo. Monroe's signature song features Amanda Shires and Libby Whitnauer on twin fiddles while Shires and Vickie Vaughn join in on harmony to Waldon's lead; SG Goodman and Margo Price also jump in to sing. It is a compelling interpretation, the one here which most deviates from the standard.

Fellow Kentuckian Goodman duets most effectively with Waldon on an appealing run-through of "Hello Stranger," while Waldon presents Dickens' "Pretty Bird" and Jean Ritchie's "Keep Your Garden Clean" unaccompanied; these haunting takes reveal the depth of Waldon's devotion to her vocal craft and acknowledgement of the origin of these songs. Rosa Lee and Doc Watson's "Your Lone Journey" closes the set in suitably reverential manner.

Reed's "I've Endured," like "Hello Stranger" and "Traveling The Highway Home," is among the songs receiving solid full-band treatments, pure hill country with one foot in the honky tonk, the other in a little cabin on a hill. It would appear Waldon has no shortage of friends with Price singing with Waldon on "Traveling the Highway Home," with the Bailes Brother song getting a late-'70s Emmylou Hot Band treatment.

Keeping the spirit of tradition alive, alongside folks like Melissa Carper, Sierra Ferrell and Canadian Shaela Miller, Waldon is one of the more interesting, complete artists in Americana. She has the ability to look to the past for inspiration while moving herself and familiar material forward. "There's Always a Song" is a reminder that Americana must retain connection to the music which broke ground for contemporary artists.