The moment you hear Isaac Gibson’s vocals on “Everlasting Lover, the lead single off 49 Winchester‘s third album appropriately titled III, you get that feeling in your stomach. You know the one – when the sound of one’s voice hits you straight in the gut (if you’re a fan of Chris Stapleton, you’ve felt it). As the chorus builds, you feel what he feels – like going through the process of osmosis – while the steel guitar adds a somber cry to hit the song home.
That feeling in your stomach never really goes away through whole album as III is full of soul and grit, which isn’t surprising given that the bandmates call Russell Country in southwest Virginia home. Their soulful alt-country-meets-Appalachia-meets-southern rock sound is well represented over the 10 tracks. “Hays, Kansas” is loaded with awesome guitars that bring a hard rock edge that meets Gibson’s grainy vocals, where his passion is so in-you-face that your own throat starts to hurt. “It’s a Shame” brings the soul and yodel of the mountains as Gibson shares all the shameful moments of life and day to day – from him being the blacksheep of the family, to being a deep thinker, to see a truck that don’t run, and so on.
Second to last track is the melancholy “You Never Did Love Me.” A true country song if there ever was one, as the lyrics allude back to the days of classic country – “You never did love me, and I think you made that abundantly clear / By the way that you’re healing, and the way that I’m feeling tonight / I’m in misery and for you everything is alright.”
The album ends with “Get Clean,” a soul-searching track in more ways the one. It tackles the demons of substance abuse and trying to get clean, but also wrestles with those of the spiritual kind, and that fine line where the worlds intertwine:
Flashing lights outside your window, you can’t see ’em from the hall
Slip back into your dark bedroom, grab your old revolver, 40 rounds of balls
She says “babe what are you doing?” as I peek out through the blinds
She said “You ain’t slept in 3 days and 4 long nights
And I think that you might have finally went and lost your ever-loving mind”
You’ve got to get clean, lord you’ve got to get clean
You’ve got to get clean, you’ve got to get clean
From rock to country to mountain music to soul – 49 Winchester’s III has it all. The entire album is fantastic – from the instrumentation, to the lyrics, to the production – but it’s Gibson’s vocals that steals the show on every track.
III is available today for download and streaming.
For more information, visit www.49winchester.com.