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Mia and Jonah keep a fluid country-folk pace rolling through
their latest release Rooms For Adelaide. Produced by Mia,
Jonah and the duo's guitarist Myles Boisen, the
album has Americana spirituals like the track "Morning Hymnals"
which features Mia's refined bluesy timbres, and ruminating pastorals
like "Dance" caramelizing breezy acoustic guitar strums
and languid rhythmic loops played by John Hanes on drums
and Seth Ford-Young on upright bass. The lyrics are observations
about the world around us, showing the bad and the good without
condemning either. The lyrics don't sound preachy but tell it
like it is with a casual swagger like in "Dance" with
words that tell, "I walked and I walked in the city of sin
where coldness is etched in the far away grins/ The singers are
chipped but they're sharp as can be/ On the grins of their mouths
they will spin and spin you around/ To a tune of all that you
want/ Acceptance is paid for by the dimes of your thoughts costing
way more than I got."
These are songs that let you be alone with your thoughts. The
gentle bluegrass smoke rings of "Adelaide" are reminiscent
of Barton Carroll's porch-folk musings, and the hardy tones
of "Troubled Mind Blues" are weighed down in deep bluesy-folk
textures reminiscent of Shelby Lynne. Though the songs
show musical influences in country-folk patinas, there is so much
in these songs that are completely etched in Mia and Jonah's penmanship
like the comfortable chord changes of "3 Stories High"
that cause your heartrate to accelerate along the chorus parts,
or the alternating vocal melodies of Mia and Jonah on "Wish."
The slinky rhythmic struts of "Junkyard Dog" have a
jazz flavoring, and the bucolic country tones of "Angels
Down" have a comfortable sway relatable to Tom Waits.
The songs have a simplicity that invites you to sing along with
them and emotive grooves that affect your image of the world.
Mia and Jonah's songs are about life, the bad and the good. It
is like they are speaking in your ear, infiltrating your mind
and helping you to see more clearly through the foggy thoughts
that hamper your way. Rooms For Adelaide is a personable
album that might make the day go by a little easier for you. It's
like having a favorite saying written on a plaque that you turn
to whenever you need inspiration to pull you through a low point
in the day. Mia and Jonah's songs keep you straight when events
in the day are pulling you in different directions.
-Susan Frances
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