Nashville’s LadyCouch isn’t so much a band as it is a hivemind collective with a split personality. On one song, it’s a blues band fronted by a dynamic vocalist; on another, it’s a straight-ahead Southern rock band; and on another, it’s an orchestra of instrumentation delivering complex compositions. On the band’s sophomore album, A Matter of Time, LadyCouch lets all of those personalities come through in the most collaborative work of the band’s seven-year existence.
Founded by vocalists Keshia Bailey and Allen Thompson in 2017 at Music City hotspot the Exit/In, the collective’s lineup hosts up to 12 musicians at any given moment. Bailey and Thompson have led the group since its inception, forming a dream team of musicians behind the bedrock of their vocal interplay and writing partnership.
“We just knew that it was something that the two of us really wanted to do, felt like we needed to do together—and it sounded like a lot of fun,” Thompson told Nashville Scene of his and Bailey’s work together. “And I think we’ve been really lucky that it also seems to sound like fun to a lot of other people.”
While the band’s 2021 debut The Future Looks Fine was primarily composed separately by Bailey and Thompson—a product of the pandemic—this latest eight-song batch expanded the musical conversation. For A Matter of Time, they opened up the floor to contributions from the entire roster, which includes guitarists Grayson Downs and Clint Maine, as well as Ray Dunham (drums), Gordon Persha (bass), Jake Blumberg (keys), Mary Hull (keys), and the LadyCouch Horns: Ben Classon, Seth Fox, Paul Thacker, and Diego Vasquez. Of course, getting a 12-person consensus on anything can be an uphill battle, let alone something as intimately personal as writing songs. But that inherent need for vulnerability and compromise has only made LadyCouch stronger and ushered in a new era for the still-nascent group.
“With this, the writing would start more individually, but the arranging process and everything else was definitely a lot more collaborative,” Thompson told Nashville Scene of the new album. “I think that was also kind of to be expected with us being five years into it: We all kind of know how each other play, we know what each other’s strengths are and limitations are theory-wise, and so we know what each other is trying to say.”
LadyCouch recorded A Matter of Time over ten days at Southern Ground Studios in Nashville, performing live as much as possible and starting plans for the next release. The album is as much a story about the changes within LadyCouch as it is one about the changes happening in the band’s Music City hometown. Confronting a stiff music industry that places image over emotion, Bailey, Thompson, and the rest of LadyCouch saw an opportunity to bring an element of joy back to the music. Working with engineer-producer Dan Davis, the band strove to capture the live essence of a LadyCouch show, a jovial environment with no shortage of fun both onstage and off.
“[If you’ve] lived in Nashville long enough, you know that it’s the unspoken [rule]: You’re not supposed to enjoy it. If you do, then you’re either not making money or you’re not taking things seriously enough,” Thompson told Nashville Scene. “That’s just not something we could really subscribe to.”
Just like LadyCouch itself, A Matter of Time contains multitudes. The opening instrumental salvo “Hulumaja” delivers a rush of adrenaline that flows straight into the anthemic “Dirt to Dust”. LadyCouch knows no stylistic bounds as the euphoric reggae bounce of “Breathe Better” and sweet soul of Allen’s “Seasick” is immediately followed by Keisha’s bluesy waltz on “Limbo”—featuring guitar and mandolin from Old Crow Medicine Show’s Mike Harris and Cory Younts. An undisputed highlight of the album is the seven-minute epic instrumental “Alpaca Suitcase”, a song that both is compositionally thrilling and underscores the new collaborative spirit of LadyCouch, as the track shares five writers who developed it through numerous versions. Elsewhere, Keisha adds more sultry blues on “Storm of Memories” before the album rides off on the feel-good fusion of “Dreams of a Working Man”, which sounds like what would happen if Steely Dan got on antidepressants.
“There’s so many variables and so much uncertainty, but the one thing that’s constant is Keshia and I’s ability to sing together,” Thompson said. “I’m lucky enough to have a job where I get to write and sing with my very best friend.”
Stream the new LadyCouch album, A Matter of Time, below or on your preferred platform. The band has a string of shows around the Southeast planned for August. Find tickets and a full list of dates here.
LadyCouch — A Matter Of Time
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