Review Summary: A solid debut effort that combines all the better elements of rock, country and a dash of soul.
These days it is no problem to find artists that straddle the lines between, pop, the country with shades of soul. Of course, all the rock elements included. The problem though could be two-fold. It can turn out to be a mishmash with no real identity, or just pure pop pap, with all or any of the above elements included. All you need it to work is some musical sense and feel and ‘a bit’ of talent for it to work on any level.
Barb Carbon, who came up with her debut solo album The Fighter in September 2019 seems to have that ‘bit’. After all, she doesn’t come up out of anywhere, since she’s been part of Atlanta’s The Ain’t Sisters with her musical partner Arrie Bozeman.
Sure, Carbon covers that now very familiar field that mainly combines modern pop with country, soul and other genres. Think Lucinda Williams, Belinda Carlile or The Indigo Girls.
Still, listening to the tracks like “Never Give It Up” or “Give it to me Straight you get the sense that Carbon not only knows what she’s doing, but she can do it with good musical sense and aplomb. She has no problem rocking out when she needs to, like on “Heavy” or “Lord Send Me a Train”, with all the elements that made Lucinda Williams sound so good. No wonder she has garnered the attention of the likes of Jim Lauderdale. After all, she covers a very similar musical ground.
Is The Fighter groundbreaking? Not really. But then, combining various musical elements is an art in itself, and you really have to be skilled and talented to come up with something very listenable and palpable. Very often, as a listener, that is exactly what you need. Here, Barb Carbon does just that.
