ALBUM REVIEW: Colby T. Helms Offers Emotional Origin Story on 'Tales of Misfortune"

[No Depression]

If you’re a country music fan, you’d do well to acquaint yourself with Colby T. Helms. The 21-year-old, with a voice and stylistic bent that’s reminiscent of current country star Tyler Childers, has the potential to be the next Appalachia-based singer-songwriter to make a splash. With his debut LP Tales of Misfortune, Helms begins to turn potential into reality.

Each of the eight tracks on Tales of Misfortune is well-written, with memorable melodies and vivid lyrical imagery about life in Helms’ rural Virginia hometown. Album opener “First Snow” is exuberant, a ramshackle honky-tonk number about the thoughts running through his head and realities he’s facing while traversing his hometown in the Blue Ridge Mountains after snowfall.

“Mountain Brandy” showcases Helms’ ability to weave a compelling narrative. He uses home-stilled and bootlegged liquor as a prism to highlight one of the uniquities of mountain life and to bemoan the loss of certain cultural traditions. He sings,

The old folks have been dying out, and all the yanks are moving in

Lots of folks around town been talking ‘bout them old ways coming to an end

As long as them geese fly North and that creek runs South

You can run up my holler and shake my hand

I got something that will shut your mouth

On “Leanne,” Helms is lovesick and broke as hell, pining for and unsuccessfully courting the song’s titular figure. Aided by some phenomenal fiddle playing by Billy Hurt (who also produced the record), he offers up a soulful lamentation on how his inability to get ahead in life and love have him feeling “like a fool again.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n74RfTR_8IU

Tales of Misfortune concludes with the up-tempo but poignant “Daddy’s Pocket Knife.” Helms processes the loss of his father through the story of finding his lost pocket knife and the memories it brings to the surface. It’s a common trope in country music — waxing poetic over a family heirloom — but it’s true to Helms’ real-life experiences and he imbues his spin on it with genuine emotion.

That emotion, infused into Helms’ consistently passionate, heart-on-his-sleeve vocals, propels Tales of Misfortune. With this strong first album, Helms proves himself to be a solid talent with a bright future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0fols_Rm3A

Colby T. Helms’ Tales of Misfortune is out Jan. 19 via Photo Finish Records.