“You have angels that dance around your shoulder”
There are two things I learned listening to this album: Though she now lives in Nashville, the new darling of country music is a Long Island native, and though I don’t listen to country music, I need to pay more attention. One Moment More deserves a listen because I think Mindy Smith might be an angel.
It’s worth your time for—at the very least—the two tracks that bookend the album, “Come to Jesus” and “Jolene.” These two songs are tinged with shadows and despair and reflect this young performer’s depth. “Come to Jesus” is a plea sung over a deceptively plain acoustic guitar, and this Appalachian-flavored song will appeal to even us nonbelievers in the blue states, especially when Mindy launches into the swelling (and haunting) brimstone chorus of “Worry not, my daughters/Worry not, my sons/Child, when life don’t seem worth living/Come to Jesus and let him hold you in his arms.” Talk about strength in a voice! Talk about being ready for the shivers! Be ready to hit the repeat button—this song is ridiculously good.
“Jolene” is a remake of a Dolly Parton song that is so successful that Dolly herself asked to sing backup on it. The song is a story of a woman pleading with another not to take her man; the soaring vocals reach into your heart and then pull it out as the name Jolene is sung over and over until it becomes a mantra. It’s not every day that a twentysomething can compete and even hold her own with the likes of a powerhouse voice like Dolly’s, but Mindy pulls it off effortlessly.
And that is the most obvious MVP on this album: Mindy’s voice—gravelly, light, airy, sweet, and powerful as all get-out. She has range and honey sweetness and raw emotion; she leaves herself on the field after every play—there’s no halfway for her. The other songs on the album don’t disappoint either, though they are more traditional and quieter. They don’t pretend to be anything they’re not, and consequently come off as very honest. Good as the album is, though, it would be nice if there were more biting songs like the bookend tracks to balance things out a bit, because it’s on those that Mindy shows her tremendous strength. However, taken as whole, this album—based around her voice and some beautiful songwriting—plays like a picnic on a nice spring afternoon, one glorious moment at a time.