hONEyhoUSe: Danielle Andrade, Mandy Buchanan, Yvonne Perea, Hillary Smith, Diane De Leon

People familiar with hONEyhoUSe’s earlier recordings might need to make a small adjustment to their expectations on hearing the new album, Kick Up the Dust, currently available here and at hONEyhoUSe concerts. The sound is different—softer, instrumentally richer, more polished, radio friendlier—but all the hONEyhoUSe earmarks are in place, and the magic is very much in play. Their message remains the same, and it might be summed up this way: “This is the only life/world we have. Ain’t it a beaut. Keep your head up, trust in goodness, and make the best of it. We know you can. Here, let us help.”

hONEyhoUSe
Kick Up the Dust (Howlin’ Dog Records)
A review
It’s been more than 18 months since Raw Honey,* the last hONEyhoUSe album (reviewed here), and a lot of life has been lived by these ladies: Mandy Buchanan (vocals), Yvonne Perea (vocals, rhythm guitar), Hillary Smith (vocals), Danielle Andrade (bass), and Dianne De Leon (drums). You can hear it in the songs, in the voices. But the long wait is over, and hONEyhoUSe fans have been rewarded with 15 new tracks, including 13 originals plus one each from the pens of Michael Hearne and Jimmy Davis. Fans have a lot of new lyrics to learn by heart so that they can sing along with the band at concerts, and they’re worth learning. There might be more fans looking to sing along, too, if this album gets the exposure it deserves.

Kick Up the Dust is the fifth hONEyhoUSe album, and the first on Howlin’ Dog Records, the bailiwick of one Don Richmond, multi-instrumentalist, engineer, producer, and messenger of peace and love. He coproduced the album with hONEyhoUSe, and he shows up on just about every track on one or more of accordion, banjo, fiddle, guitars (including a nice slide piece on the title track), lap steel, mandolin, organ, pedal steel, and synth. Richmond’s tasteful touch rounds out the sound, which tends more in an Americana vein than on previous albums, and signal contributions are also made by Caleb Clark (piano, organ), Jimmy Stadler (piano), and Jay Henry Gregg (cello). The mix is subtle and excellent, and the additional instrumentation is used judiciously to color and support the songs without ever obtruding.

But the album’s heart, as with all hONEyhoUSe albums, lies in the three entwined voices of Buchanan, Perea, and Smith; the solid songwriting that blends country, blues, and soul; and the guaranteed hONEyhoUSe uplift and, in its most literal sense, encouragement. Perea’s familiar acoustic rhythm guitar opens the proceedings on her song “Frames,” and she tells us “we got trouble on the home front / you don’t have to drown we can cover your heart / we got plenty of the right love.” It’s a sentiment that threads through much of the album.

The rousing title track, written by Smith, Perea, Urzetta (that’s Lyric Urzetta, Smith’s daughter), and Richmond, gives us an anthem for our troubled and disjointed time. The heart-swelling climax is a nonpartisan call to action that makes you feel the urgency of the moment and the real possibility for healing:

the whole world’s a battleground
i’m saying today we can change it
if we change it maybe we can save it
we gotta start somewhere, there’s a love train here
first stop—damn, everywhere

The poignant “The Songwriter,” cowritten by Michael Hearne, Andy Byrd, and Mentor Williams, resonates with the knowledge of loss, something the tune’s lead vocalist Buchanan has certainly known. Her voice, always sweet and pleasing, has a new heft, and she is more centered and confident in it. Speaking of voices, Perea’s sheds balm, and Smith’s possesses powers of redemption.

The well-sequenced album hits all the typical hONEyhoUSe topics. Some songs call listeners to appreciate their own gifts and value (“Stumbling Steps;” “Not Yours to Keep,” cowritten with multi-award-winner Jane Bach in Nashville; “Catalyst;” and the rollicking R&B of “My Own Sunshine”), while others admit to self-doubt (“Daze”) or address the inevitability of mortality and the sweetness of life (“Crossing,” “It’s Happening”). There are love songs (“Promise Land,” “Miss” by Jimmy Davis, “Better Than This”), and songs of hope for better times (“King of Love,” “Catch Us”). The last of these, cowritten with Nashville heavyweight Roxi Dean, offers a nice recommendation for getting through it all, delivered in a memorable and moving chorus:

pray like a child, believe like a saint
mama always told me, count your blessings
dance like a fire, even when the world don’t play fair
when everything, everything crashes
love is gonna catch us

hONEyhoUSe makes you believe it, and right now, my friends, we could all use a bit of that.

* Click on this link to go to the Amazon page where you can purchase the album. If you click through and make purchases there, Musically Speaking will receive a small percentage of the sale. Thank you for your support.

© 2018 Mel Minter