I’m flying down 15/501 in the Mazda3 Time Machine. The past few weeks have been weird ones for me and mine, though in the grand scheme everything is and will forever be fine—especially when Surprise Valley streams through the speakers.
Years ago, music discovery for me meant leafing through the pages of various music magazines and listening to a local AAA radio station that played way too much of everybody’s fifth favorite band, Steely Dan. Parachuting down the rabbit hole known as YouTube was another favorite pastime. Now it’s Instagram. To that point, I came across the Nashville-based singer-songwriter Abigail Rose last fall by way of former Rounder Records president (and Blake Babies guitarist) John Strohm, who shared a clip of her performing in a hospital lobby as part of the Musicians on Call project. In the months since, she released a song here, a song there, a song pretty much everywhere—except, oddly, Bandcamp.
Not that any of that is on my mind as I’m speeding across the Haw River bridge. About the only thing I can think is that I’m hitting repeat as soon as the EP is done.
The six-track, 18-minute set opens with the minute-and-change title track, which is the sonic equivalent of the dawn. The first proper song, “Run Girl,” finds Abigail Rose—lyrically speaking—channeling her inner Prince while observing that doomsday is nigh: “Yeah, the world’s on fire, might as well dance while she burns/And the only water I have to offer is my words.” It’s nowhere near as delirious as “1999,” mind you, nor does it aim to be; in truth, one discerns a serious Sheryl Crow vibe on it and the songs that follow.
The sly “Wake Me Up” explores how the sky is always falling somewhere—if one believes the TV news, at least. “Edges,” which was released as a single last autumn, looks away from wider concerns to focus on how people are like porcupines: “Everybody’s got spikes.” (To be flawed, in other words, is to be human. We all have rough edges.) “Dying to Love,” released as a single in December, is a mesmerizing gem that defines how she hopes to lead her life: “Always got my eyes on the horizon/Throw my dreams up and let them fly with the wind/Keep my heart full of the best intentions/I wanna build a life I’m dying to live.”
FYI, she shared an acoustic version of it last month that’s even more riveting. One almost hopes that when or if she hits the road, or at least plays the Cat’s Cradle Back Room, she does so with just her acoustic guitar.
The EP closes with “Through the Night,” an atmospheric vow that echoes long after the music fades to silence.
On her website, Abigail Rose suggests that these songs are best experienced “start to finish on a drive, walk or laying on the floor.” I can confirm the first works great, obviously, as well as the last—though my “floor” is actually the guest bed behind me that the cat calls his own. The songs also resonate when played through crappy laptop speakers, my usual high-octane headphones or (via bluetooth) my stereo shelf system. She’s from the same singer-songwriter school that’s given us Margo Cilker and Caroline Spence, so if you like one or both of those artists—or just have a hankering for songs that will take you away from immediate concerns—give Surprise Valley a spin. It’s a great outing.
The Old Grey Cat 
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