Ally Venable - Heart of Fire (2021) [Hi-Res]

This is no time for faint hearts. The pandemic might have silenced the music scene, shuttered the live circuit and divided artists from their fans. But with Heart Of Fire, Texass favourite new gunslinger Ally Venable is coming off the ropes swinging. Defying dark times and rolling up the amps, this fourth release from the acclaimed singer-songwriter is a record to rattle your speakers and signpost better times ahead. My vision was to really spread a positive message of love, says Venable. The world needs that right now. If Heart Of Fire finds Venable giving the globe some much-needed love, then the feeling is entirely mutual. Still in her early twenties, the guitarists breakneck two decades have moved as fast as her fingers, her path winding from childhood church choirs to the teenage influence of local heroes like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Miranda Lambert, while her critically acclaimed catalogue flows from No Glass Shoes (2016) and Puppet Show (2018) to 2019s #2 Billboard-charting Texas Honey. As Texas roots icon Mike Zito points out: Ally is the future of the blues and the crossover music of American roots-rock. Heart Of Fire is a lovely way to burn. In a world of electronic pop, this old-soul gunslinger riffs up a storm on the Led Zeppelin-worthy sting of Hard Change and the title tracks driving wah-soaked lick, while inviting special guest Kenny Wayne Shepherd to tear up Bring On The Pain. Elsewhere, her writing frequently forks into leftfield, from the chain-gang stomp of Hateful Blues, to Road To Nowheres wistful double-header with Southern rock great Devon Allman. He jumped right in, she reflects, and brought it to life. Defiant, passionate, honest and raw, Heart Of Fire is the record these times demand, from an artist who refuses to wait for the storm to pass, but prefers to dance in the rain. My goal for this album was to give an outlet for people, Venable considers.