1 May 2020
Amanda Cevallos gives listeners a bounty of treasure in her new self-titled record. At precisely the moment when countless people are fighting cabin fever, Cevallos transports her audience to a charming honky tonk on the river of San Antonio, Texas. Waylon Jennings sang on his hit, “Bob Wills is Still the King” that he and his fellow Texan natives “grew up on music we call Western swing.”
Cevallos, who is from Houston, leads a tight and joyful Western swing band through 11 songs, ten of which she wrote, with effervescence and verve. Her sweet and tender voice is emotionally effectual, while also pristine.
The steel guitar rings out, and Cevallos tells stories with humor and grace. “It takes all my boyfriends to make up one good man…” she sings on the opening song giving listeners a glimpse into her deft lyrical touch.
On “Love Me Together” – a mid-record ballad – she proves that she can compose and sing a country ballad with the best of her peers. “Never Been Too Lucky” has Cevallos reviewing the unfortunate turns her life has taken with a defiant energy. When her backup singers join her on the chorus, there is a simple beauty to the music, animating the imperishable truth of honest country music.
As a Latina-American, who sings the closing song “Ready For the Times to Get Better” in Spanish, she can also help usher a necessary and powerful example of diversity and multiculturalism into a genre that is too long committed to the aesthetic and ideology of redneck machismo.
The youthful Cevallos has a bright future as an entertainer and songstress. One can only hope that there is also a light that shines on her, bringing her wonderful music to a large audience.
David Masciotra (www.davidmasciotra.com) is the author of four books, including Barack Obama: Invisible Man (Eyewear Publishing, 2017) and Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky, 2015).