Christmas Lullaby

With Erica Sunshine Lee's 6 albums, 2 Top 80 US singles, Multiple Top 10 European hits, around 300 tour dates per year (across the US and internationally), and no end for her in sight, the 2014 Georgia Country Female Artist of the Year is setting the bar high for independent and signed female country artists.

"Don’t let Erica Sunshine Lee’s seductive packaging fool you – her latest release, an EP called Southern Amendment, isn’t full of stereotypically “female country singer” charms and Lee isn’t a songwriting lightweight coasting on her sex appeal. Instead, it’s a bucket of bloody blues fistfight with few lulls and only country in the vaguest sense. There’s twang to spare and the songs are often grounded in some narrow concerns, but her approach is completely modern and likely accessible to a wide cross section of listeners. The EP’s five songs are void of filler and sound thoroughly work-shopped before ever being committed to recording. Naturally, some of the assurance heard here can be attributed to Lee’s discovering the extent of her artistic powers, but there’s more. Southern Amendment is the sound of an artist growing and exploiting her newly found reach.

It kicks off memorably with “Mud on My Boots”, a preening two-fisted tale that finds Lee committing murder following discovering her man with another woman. There’s ample humor, dark as it might be, in the track that tempers the grisly subject matter, but there’s no questioning Lee’s conviction. She throws her full weight into the performance and it burns with a bluesy brilliance that country music hasn’t rewarded in ages. This is, frankly, far closer to the mid-tempo blues rocker than anything you’ll find on country radio, but it covers familiar thematic territory in the genre.

“Another Sad Love Song” is a little more pensive, but has a great light rock groove infused with enough roots feel to steer it away from the overly commercial. However, never mistake it for inaccessible – one of Lee’s major achievements as a songwriter and performer is that she writes them her way and that way happens to neatly dovetail with popular appeal. These are imminently relatable tracks and “Another Sad Love Song” will strike a chord with many.

“Leaving Atlanta” showcases Lee’s talents for the big, cinematic style ballad with long, lingering piano melodies and steadily building musical tension. Nothing, however, is overwrought. It is easy for songs like this to lapse into cliché, but Lee’s lyrics never risk it and her vocal glides through the changes with soaring inspiration. Lee explores her affinity for the darker side again on “Girls with Guns”, but delves deeper into the black here than ever in the opener. The humor is completely gone as Lee delivers a scathing, cautionary vocal for anyone who dares cause her physical harm. It’s a focused effort and even a little foreboding.

The EP ends on a softer note with the rueful “Drinking and Praying” where Lee finds herself measuring spiritual ideals against worldly pleasures and finds her response wanting. There isn’t just divine disappointment that she fears – everything is seen through a prism of who she’s letting down, who she’s failing somehow with her wayward behavior. It’s an appropriately emotive vocal for such subject matter and concludes the release on an elegiac note. Southern Amendment will impress country and rock fans alike with its superb musicianship, entertaining theatrics, and deceptive depth."
http://www.musicnewsnashville.com/erica-sunshine-lee-southern-amendment/