and the Release Party at Full Circle Brewing Co.

by Lisa Talley

On July 19 at Full Circle Brewing Co. in Fresno, Lindsay White will be making a special stop during her west coast tour for a hometown album release party celebrating her new solo LP titled Lights Out.

White’s biography depicts the new album as “a cannonball dive into trauma-infested waters. Having lost her mother and grandfather, divorced her husband, come out as gay, helped her bandmate through two manic episodes, and remarried a woman to the religious dismay of loved ones, the songs kept coming for White, and the result is a powerful selection of lyrical lamentations.”

A reasonable assumption might be to expect an onslaught of angry guitars and a cacophony of brooding frustration erupting out from White’s voice, but in a twist of pleasant surprise, the experience is much to the contrary. There’s an influence of old bluegrass and folk that hums in the foundation of every song, it billows up and pulls you in. The album is full of beautifully crafted arrangements so sweet that it keeps you from noticing that hot shot of raw emotion you received until it’s too late. Hang on tight, Lights Out will take you on an emotional rollercoaster but don’t fret, because you’ll enjoy the ride.

“You’re the sugar coat to a bitter pill… You will walk to the porch with a bat in your hand so I don’t have to look at the boogie man. You flash all of the light underneath my bed and the monsters have not found me yet, but they found you.” – from the first verse of “Surrogate”, the lyrics begin a story of sisters and the love and protection that lies there. It’s a telling of sacrifices, scars, and unending gratitude. And that’s just the first song on the album with 9 more to go.

Lindsay White’s voice is feathery, light to the touch and almost impossible to imagine that it could hold so much weight, but it does. The album sometimes carries a certain kind of brightness that’s somehow dripping with an unexpected ache at the same time, it’s the kind of writing that used to exist in great country of the past with the likes of Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash. Likewise, the instrumentation is organic, leaving behind the all too many technological trappings of an over-produced studio mix down, making for an uninterrupted and all the more intimate connection to the music.

“I carry you like a shotgun aimed for destruction.” A line from ‘I Carry You’ punches hard through the upbeat melody and bounces down a long line of complex faces I’ve learned to love and hate at the same time. Lights Out feels familiar in the way that old photographs feel familiar, the ones we stuff deep beneath the memories we’re happy to keep. The ones we never look at, but can’t bring ourselves to throw away. It’s like the echo of an old sorrow not yet finished with us. Through White’s telling of her stories, we hear our own and it’s in that parallel that Lights Out achieves something wonderful.

“Much of the album is centered on grief and loss since that’s much of what I was experiencing throughout the process of recording. Although those are difficult topics, they are so universal to the human experience and can be such a unifying force. I feel that our society is missing a huge opportunity by not talking about grief more often. Loss has a way of showing you where to find strength and compassion for yourself and for others. My hope with this album is that people can connect their own experiences to these songs, find a little courage to confront and process their own grief, and find some sort of healing in knowing they’re not alone in those emotions,” says White about her hopes of what people will experience while listening to her work.

Lights Out releases on July 14 (you can pre-order it on iTunes) and Lindsay White will play it live for a hometown album release party at Full Circle Brewing Co. in Fresno on July 19. Included on the bill are Fresno locals Patrick Nalty, a jazz/blues singer-songwriter and Americana / country styled group, Richfield. There are no tickets for the event, just a $10 cover charge at the door.

For more information about Lindsay White, her music, and where else she’ll be stopping throughout her west coast tour visit www.lindsaywhitemusic.com

Full Circle Brewing Co. is located at 620 F St Fresno, 93706. For more information visit www.fullcirclebrewing.com

Patrick Nalty: www.instagram.com/patthepragmatic | Richfield: www.richfield.bandcamp.com