AMERICANA Album of the month
KELSEY WALDON
Every Ghost OH BOY8/10
Vivacious, reflective sixth from still-peaking Kentuckian
IT’S a fair bet that John Prine recognised a kindred soul when he signed Kelsey Waldon to his Oh Boy label in 2019. Their shared love of idiomatic rural music aside, both seemed aligned to a distinct era of classic country. For Prine it meant Hank Williams and Merle Travis; for Waldon it means Hazel Dickens and Ralph Stanley. And while she’s hardly a throwback, her music makes for an invigorating collision of old-school and modern.