Authenticity and originality are key ingredients in the country and folk music that catches our ears and Melissa Carper‘s songwriting and voice immediately caught our attention when we heard ‘Back When’. The song comes from her new album Daddy’s Country Gold (released last Friday), one of the finest vintage country albums we’ve heard so far in 2021.

“A lot of my songs are based on my real-life experiences and with ‘Back When’ every single word of that was lived and true. I started writing it a bit after a breakup while longing for the relationship I once had with someone–that is, the beginning of the relationship when we were in love and everything was wonderful. It was written with a hopeful desire that things could be as they once were, and though that never happened, I feel like this song does have that hopeful air that maybe ‘back when’ could happen again, for any relationship that has lost that spark.”  

With a voice that sits somewhere between Gillian Welch, Jolie Holland and Karen Dalton (she’s also been compared to a bluegrass Billie Holiday and a country Janis Joplin), Carper’s melodies hit that sweet and sad spot perfectly, soaked in country, folk, jazz and western swing amid Lloyd Green’s pedal steel, gently aching fiddle and shuffling drums. Superb stuff!

Melissa has also released this wonderful live recording of ‘I Almost Forgot About You’ in conjunction with Western As Fuck.