REVIEW: The Goodwin Brothers — Everyday Thing (SINGLE)
Comprised of little more than raw pastoral charisma, smart lyricism, wildly attractive string play, and rustic harmonies straight out of country’s golden era, there’s an instant accessibility to the new single “Everyday Thing” by The Goodwin Brothers that doesn’t pertain to fans of bucolic balladry alone. On the contrary, there’s enough of an indie bluegrass sizzle in the instrumental make-up here to say that this wasn’t something crafted specifically for country fans, but simply those who like a purer form of melodicism and Americana than the mainstream is known to turn out these days.
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“Everyday Thing” benefits from simplicity in a few different ways, and considering just how much indulgence we’ve been hearing from The Goodwin Brothers’ immense competition in the past year, theirs is an intriguing take on old-fashioned American musicality if I do say so myself. Without coming across as minimalist, they’ve stripped a lot of fat from a contemporary sound and delivered something gripping in this piece that immediately had me jonesing for more from their discography, which says a lot being that I was only just recently introduced to their music in the first place.
I think it’s hard to ignore the obvious red dirt influence over the structure of this track, but again, I’m reticent to say that this single was developed with specifically countrified aesthetics. There’s no getting around the crossover appeal it’s got, but the backbone of the lyrics is just too thoroughly folky for me to tether “Everyday Thing” to anything I’ve been hearing out of the pure country community this year.
I love the physicality of the drums here, particularly as they add to the rocking of the verses and, thus, the humanization of the narrative. The vocal is rich with free-spirited energy but not removed from the warmth of the instruments in the way a lot of recently released Nashville content has been. Separation wasn’t on The Goodwin Brothers’ minds when they were sitting down to record this; instead, I think it’s clear that they were focusing on the togetherness these melodies inspire, and what it takes to make them as full-bodied as possible from within a studio setting.
A country crossover piece that has the potential to shake up the game for a lot of audiences and acts coming up through the underground at the moment (and potentially land these guys on CMT), The Goodwin Brothers’ “Everyday Thing” has been an exciting new single to get into this spring, and I can see it scoring a lot of points with critics left relatively exhausted by the pseudo-country material some indie bands have been producing as of late.
The country revival is indeed upon us, but this isn’t a group looking to cash in on the movement’s surface aesthetics at all — they’ve got something to say in songs like this one. “Everyday Thing” has had my heart since I listened to it for the first time, and if you’re not already spinning it this spring, you’re missing out on a solid offering worthy of its buzz.
Colin Jordan
