Erica Sunshine Lee - The South Will Rise Again (2014)

Edgy, controversial titles, catchy and infectious melodies and hooks, genuine country music, with a variety of styles, subjects from love, heartache, tragedy, rebuilding of towns, hearts and southern pride integrated with unfiltered, raw southern sass.

Erica Sunshine Lee is a country / blues based artists located in the Southeast who just released her latest CD entitled “The South Will Rise Again” (2014).
Her sound is an entertaining hybrid of contemporary classic country with rock n’ soul and a bit of modern day blues-pop. With her 2nd album’s single “You Won’t Get to Me” gaining spins across the south, midwest and west coast, Sunshine toured through Europe, Central America, and the US, landing in Las Vegas, where she played with world famous Guitarist Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, and Hawaii, where she performed with Grammy nominee Henry Kapono.
Working 5 am shifts at Dunkin Donuts, while selling easy bake-oven chocolate chip cookies and pizza by the slice on campus was normal for this ray of Sunshine to fund her way through college. It was common for the underage vocalist to sneak into bars to sing karaoke every night of the week after working 80 hours per week as the leading car salesman for 7 years. The songwriting here aims to promote more positive messages than what we hear on the radio these days.
The overall vibe I get is this gal and his band are holding nothing back, thus steering clear of reducing songs to sanitized versions of themselves. The first few songs “Girls Night Out”, Georgia For This”, and “Everyone Loves a Country Girl” hit the deck running as this bursts to life via well-appointed movements, soulful-rock vibe and a strong vocal presence up front.
Also present are tight harmonies and consistent groove-ridden rhythm section. In my opinion this project features 3 main ingredients: Erica Sunshine Lee on vocals and as primary composer, and the guitar/rhythm section. To me these 3 personify the core of the Lee sound. This may sound stupid – but it’s amazing to me how valuable Lee is to this kind of sound. Lee is the key ingredient that makes all of this work oh so well. The primaries here are Vocals, Guitar and Drums/Bass. All 3 are finely balanced within the mix.
The vocal range of Lee especially appealing to the higher registry are artfully defined while still layered quite nicely within the pocket. She has much to offer insofar as passion, grace, country swagger and power without falling into the vocalist-with-supporting-arrangement trap. With marquee tracks like “Georgia For This”, “Holler if You’re Blue Collar” and “Drinking for Two” stimulate the senses one can’t help but admire how all the instruments and musical styles are distributed masterfully within this 13 track CD.
This is a true to form old school blues-country-pop that successfully captures the vintage songwriting virtuoso of Lee but I can hear even hear Reba McEntire and Trisha Yearwood, Throughout all piece one will notice a tragic-sweetness and blooming hooks all the while maintaining an intimate “conservative” country-groove feel that isn’t afraid to rock out every now and then.
“The South Will Rise Again” is undeniably country based with an almost southern Americana feel to it courtesy of her demographic. Many songs on this album are more than ripe for all the old country rockers out there but this album could easily be liked by all music fans out there.
In “The South Will Rise Again” expect no overdubbing or disappointingly amateurish mixing with a disingenuous attempt in making a hit record. These are high-quality, clean recordings that balances out both natural and midi sounds flawlessly. The music though effective is not up to the level of some of the more hookier styles of music I’ve heard like Chely Wright, The Judds and Terri Clark.
This music may not be for the trendy sonic pop country disco crowd but regardless of any of that “The South Will Rise Again” proves that with continued dedication via a powerful slew of albums/songs great music can be achieved regardless of how modern it does or does not sound.