'True North' by Caroline Spence
The woman who gave an Americana makeover to Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” just when we needed it most—right in the middle of a global pandemic—followed that up with True North. Released earlier this year, the sweet-sounding record gently ripples with dark, emotional overtones.
Possessing a breezy voice as memorable and familiar as that of Emmylou Harris and Tift Merritt, Nashville’s Caroline Spence sings with insightful honesty that seems both out of place and out of time. “I don’t wanna put my pain on a pedestal/Wrap it up and sell it to you at the record store/I know we all feel the same. I’m just a little louder,” she declares on opening track “Mary Oliver” (a tribute to the poet). Elsewhere, on “Clean Getaway” —True North’s first single—she admits “most days it’s hard just to be yourself/But it’s impossible to be anybody else.” Throughout these dozen songs, Spence doesn’t pretend to be anybody else. What you hear is what you get, and that’s what makes True North special.
Caroline Spence will perform in The Back Room at Colectivo, 2211 N. Prospect Ave., on Oct. 15.
