Having built a fan base that included many colleagues with her genre-crossing bluegrass group
Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys and a role in the harmony-vocal folk trio
the Sweet Water Warblers, Nashville-based Michigander
Lindsay Lou went solo with the even more genre-blending
Southland in 2018. She continues to dip into alt-country, bluegrass, folk, rock, and more on the singer/songwriter-oriented follow-up,
Queen of Time, her
Kill Rock Stars label debut. Among the album's first impressions are its effortlessly intricate musicianship and the fact that it's remarkably warm and striding given that its songs were inspired by a period that included loss, divorce, and the arrival of a career-threatening pandemic. The track list opens with one of its two covers, the affectionate and poignant "Nothing Else Matters," a song written by friends
Maya de Vitry and
Phoebe Hunt that
Hunt sent to
Lindsay Lou to learn for a gig. With lyrics including "I don't need to live forever to know I'll always love you," the song immediately connected with her, and the
Queen of Time version features expert accompaniment to
Lou and her band by Dobro player
Jerry Douglas (who earns a feature credit here) and mandolinist
Dominick Leslie (
Bela Fleck,
Molly Tuttle). Next, a rare melancholy entry, "Nothing's Working," features
Billy Strings. The clouds soon part with the second cover, an appropriately cheerful version of
Billy Swan's "I Can Help." The tone remains uplifting and thoughtful throughout the rest of
Queen of Time, as it traverses breezy folk-rock (the title track), lively bluegrass ("Rule"), lush soft rock ("Shame"), and countrified close-harmony song ("Silent") as well as tracks featuring recorded conversations with
Lou's down-to-earth grandmother. All told, it's a lovely, accomplished set of songs that offers compassion and wisdom in the face of adversity. ~ Marcy Donelson