Sawyer Hill - Everybody's Home, Nobody's Happy
Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas, the grandchild of a traveling preacher made his way through dive bar after dive bar, honing his skills as a musician and finding a way to meld Southern blues rock with modern alternative. Sawyer Hill has been waiting for us to discover him for quite some time now, and his debut - Everybody’s Home, Nobody’s Happy - is a stunning feat for a new artist. Hill is an authentic singer-songwriter, addressing his familial upbringing in middle America, his trauma, and his love throughout the album’s eleven tracks. Hill draws comparisons to Johnny Cash, and they hold up; he even has an outstanding cover of the late outlaw country rocker’s “Folsom Prison Blues” in his catalog.
Opener “Goin To Hell” finds Hill delivering an honest farewell to his religious upbringing in a hushed baritone (“God is real, he’s just not hearing me so well/You sold the truth to twist the knife/Deep in my chest, I got this holy ghost that haunts me still/So I’ll say farewell”). Standout blues-infused track “Jimmy’s Gone Numb” is true blue Americana, telling the story of a man who was sold the same dream we’re all sold about America only to find that they were misled (“Ozark boy on a cliff’s edge/Thirty-year war and a mortgage/Paying taxes, can’t afford eggs/Can’t afford shit”). “Tyin’ The Noose” finds him miserable at the dissolution of a relationship, nearly waiting for death to come to him, before saying goodbye to it all on “Bad Lovers (“I remember seven kinds of hell she put me through/Oh, this is the last, the last, the last time/Good riddance to bad lovers”). Not even a song later, the wound is opened again (“Tongue’s A Knife”).
The halfway point on Everybody’s Home, Nobody’s Happy finds Hill veering away from the blues elements that embody the first five songs and leaning into emotional alternative rock. “Alibi’ is an outstanding number, a song about going back to a relationship despite knowing that it’s not the best idea (“You love me just when you’re lonely/And I fall for you every time”). Hill sings with conviction even when he feels like he’s drowning (“Everybody’s Got It Figured Out”, “Blood Is Cheap”), and it makes him such an endearing character.
The album closes with Hill confronting his roots (“Ghost Town”), lamenting homesickness (“Lady Arkansas”), and dealing with the crushing weight of depression in the midst of a breakup (“Blankest Canvas”). The closing track is somber and upbeat all in the same breath, with Hill’s voice breaking through as he sings of a feeling that we know all too well as heartbreak consumes us - the loneliness, the sadness, the all-consuming icy breath of reality (“My hand don’t fit right in yours/Break my fingers to size so you can be sure/Paint a black sheep white so you can call it yours/Try to change the sky, turn it from blue to green”). He delivers his words delicately, yet they’re sharp as a knife.
Sawyer Hill may very well be the next big thing in modern rock music. Music with honesty like this truly sticks in the heart. You can feel the sincerity in every track.
