Ida Mae - Click Click Domino (2021)

For nearly two straight years following the release of their critically acclaimed debut, Chasing Lights, Ida Mae lived on the road, crisscrossing the US from coast to coast as they performed hundreds of dates with everyone from Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss to Marcus King and Greta Van Fleet. And while those shows were certainly formative for the electrifying British duo, it was what happened in between-the countless hours spent driving through small towns and big cities, past sprawling suburbs and forgotten ghost towns, across rolling plains and snow-capped mountains-that truly laid the groundwork for the band's transportive new album, Click Click Domino."Coming from England, the US feels like this incredibly vast landscape full of freedom and isolation and beauty and tragedy and lostness all mixed together," says Chris Turpin, who co-founded the duo back in Britain with his longtime musical partner, Stephanie Jean. "Driving over a hundred thousand miles for months on end, we couldn't help but be inspired by it."Written primarily in the backseat of a moving car, Click Click Domino embodies all the momentum and possibility of the great American unknown, but it's more than a simple road record. In fact, Turpin and Jean rarely reference their travels in any explicit terms here. Instead, the duo offers up a series of cinematic vignettes drawn from the world outside their window, a collection of intimate, empathetic snapshots full of hope and disappointment, promise and regret, connection and loneliness. The songs on Click Click Domino are raw and direct, fueled by an innovative mix of vintage instruments and modern electronics, and the performances are loose and exhilarating to match. Turpin and Jean produced the album themselves, recording primarily on their own in their adopted hometown of Nashville during the COVID-19 pandemic, and while the collection is certainly bolstered by appearances from high profile guests like Marcus King, Greta Van Fleet's Jake Kiszka, and Ethan Johns.