Hezekiah Goode - Humansville review

 

Hezekiah Goode released “Humansville” in 2021. The singer with the strange sounding name has grown on nothing but Americana music in its finest forms. He comes from an Ozarks based musical family and old-timey, country, and blues were the main influences on him. Goode is active as a musician ever since but his first album came not until 2011.

“Humansville” is his third studio album and a mixture of old-time, bluegrass, and traditional country music with influences from other genres audible here and there. If you expect a down-home folk album a la Black Twig Pickers, you’re wrong (although it gets really down-home). If you expect something like The Country Side of Harmonica Sam, you’re wrong either. It’s something in between and yet very different.

The album kicks off with “Rocky Mountain Line”, an enjoyable bluegrass song with guitar, dobro, mandolin and fiddle. It is followed by a slow ballad, “Ozark Valentine”, and the piano is surprising here. “Son in Law Yodel” and “Big Taters” are more of traditional nature with the former being clearly Jimmie Rodgers inspired and the latter representing a great fiddle tune. On “Laramie County Jail” and “Your Weary Bones”, Goode heads more towards traditional 50s and 60s country music. And the title track is another fun number in the old-time music style.

Goode is surely criss-crossing the musical influences of his youth and does this in an appealing style. The traditional numbers on this album are better in my opinion. However, it should work for both modern bluegrass and country music fans alike.