The Weight of the World [LP]

Alabama-based singer-songwriter Grayson Capps has followed his instincts for over two decades. A singular voice in American roots music, Capps emerged from the New Orleans music scene in the late 90s with his bands The House Levelers and Stavin’ Chain. He later stepped out as a solo artist with his 2005 debut album, If You Knew My Mind. Through an amalgamation of Gulf Coast folk, stinging slide guitar blues, and barefoot country charm imparted with a lyrical nuance steeped in the Southern Gothic lineage, Capps built a devoted cult audience entirely on his own terms. His latest studio album, The Weight of the World, is his first collection of original material in seven years and his eighth overall. Co-produced by Ryan Avinger and his longtime guitarist Corky Hughes at Dauphin Street Sound in Mobile, Alabama, its nine tracks encompass a raw and ragged magic, ranging from campfire balladry to voodoo choogle to classic country. Angelic harmonies are woven throughout by Mobile-based soul/gospel singer Symone French. Highlights include the windswept acoustic road song “Far Away” that romanticizes the trials and tribulations of the troubadour lifestyle; “My Body”; a driving rock n’ roll anthem for women’s rights that doubles as a battle cry for an impending revolution; “News,” a five-minute blast of psychedelic swamp rock calling out the fear-centric motives of modern media; and the title track, “The Weight of the World,” a languid meditation on stillness. “As within, so without. That’s how I address the world through my songs,” says Capps. “‘If you speak your truth people may not get it exactly, but they will get their own truth. But if you don’t speak your truth, they get nothing. So I speak my truth.”