Abby Brown - Heart on Fire (click on image to watch video)

 13 November 2019

As artists ranging from Steve Earle to Garth Brooks point out, some of the best talents shunned by country radio happen to be women. Despite an unfair system, women worthy of further exposure keep cranking out fantastic music, as evidenced by Abby Brown’s Heart on Fire EP, the follow up to her 2018 debut Gypsy Soul. 

Snap-along, pop-friendly opener “Every Day of My Life” and the twangier, galloping title track establish Brown as a gifted writer of songs about matters of the heart. An even stronger example of her skills as a vocalist, acoustic guitarist, and lyricist, “Love, Release Me,” appears on the EP twice. It debuts as a gorgeous pairing of worldly wisdom (comparable to the lyrical wit of Ashley McBryde) with orchestral accompaniment—meaning the talented Maria Conti’s playing a violin, not a fiddle. There’s also an unplugged version that’s just Brown with her guitar, pouring out her heart as if it’s open mic night or, better yet, a Song Suffragettes event.

There’s only one song not penned by Brown: a cover of the first track off Maren Morris’ Hero album, “Sugar.” Brown’s beautiful tribute to Morris proves that at least one co-write by a superstar too “pop” for some old souls’ tastes works as a stripped-down, acoustic-based song that might just fit strict definitions of “country”—a term that’s meaning has been debated for decades.

Bobby Moore

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