AMERICANA

KELSEY WALDON

White Noise/White Lines OH BOY/THIRTY TIGERS

8/10

Captivating breakthrough effort from Nashville’s newest Kentucky queen

KELSEY WALDON recorded her first self-released album, Anchor In The Valley, in 2010. A small handful of others have since followed, mostly going unnoticed outside of her adopted Nashville, but her recent signing to John Prine’s Oh Boy label (the first artist to do so in 15 years) has finally created the buzz that her talent so richly deserves.

White Noise/White Lines is a compelling showcase for both her admirable songwriting skills and, as Prine puts it, “one of the more authentic country voices I’ve heard in a long time”. Anyone looking for a handy primer as to Waldon’s back story should head directly to “Kentucky, 1988”, a condensed piece of autobiography that serves as her own Coal Miner’s Daughter moment. Growing up in Monkey’s Eyebrow in Western Kentucky, she relates a tale of parental disharmony, a brown trailer on wheels and “Sunday school for your prayin’ / Rotgut for your