My first listen to the latest single from Americana singer-songwriter Sophie Gault, a bluesy duet with Gabe Lee, caused me to check the date on the Mazda3 Time Machine’s infotainment screen. Did I accidentally trip the Flux Capacitor V8 when I crossed the Haw River Bridge? It’s easy to zoom much faster than the speed limit on that stretch of highway, after all. Had I landed in 1992 or ’93? It sure seemed that way. The song, about old friends catching up, sounds—if you can imagine such a thing—like a Lucinda Williams duet with Don Henley intended for her Sweet Old World album. It lingers with you long after the music fades to silence.
Gault, of course, is the former front woman of Sophie & the Broken Things, whose Delusions of Grandeur was one of my favorite albums of 2022. She’s since gone solo and has an album, Baltic Street Hotel, in the offing. “Lately” is the latest good omen about it, following “Christmas in the Psych Ward” and “Fixin Things.” Lee, for his part, seems to have a hand (and/or voice) in just about every cool tune coming out of Nashville these days.
The Old Grey Cat 
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