Rattles from outside our vision scratch into the light as Katie Lou McCabe’s “Dirt Track” breathes into life. Discordant steel-string squalls open pathways through the darkness, leaving space for a voice to scream out in a cleansing reverie. The opening is a trick, though; to knock us off our perch and bring us into the open field. Imagery in “Dirt Track” moves purposefully, always behind a vintage sheen that echoes the timeless feeling buried within the guitar melody. McCabe moves the chord progressions up and down, almost like a heartbeat rising and falling between moments of bliss and trepidation. Even when the dissonance returns, it can’t distract from the places we’re going. Water washes away the ashes. Piano accents bring emotional threads to the forefront leading up to the catharsis of connection. Aloft in the night sky, hanging like the searching notes at the end of “Dirt Track,” we feel alive.
“Dirt Track” appears on Katie Lou McCabe’s forthcoming album, Innersense, out on March 23. Pre-order HERE.
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