With his rich, velvety voice, Cajun crooner Courtney Granger calls to mind country greats like Hank Williams and George Jones, whose high and lonesome wails and honky-tonk shuffles became the stuff of legend. The Grammy-nominated Granger grew up singing along to jukebox country records in the local dancehalls of his Louisiana Bayou hometown, and he brilliantly channels those influences and more on his new album, Beneath Still Waters, due for release on October 14th via Valcour Records.
Granger pays tribute to the patron saints of country and his honky-tonk heroes in tracks like “Mr. Fool”, “Back In My Baby’s Arms Again”, and “Lovin’ On Backstreets”; while the songs on Beneath Still Waters aren’t all original to Granger, he makes them come to life in his own unique way. His voice transports me back to childhood, with memories of crackling AM country radio stations playing as my uncle worked on his pickup truck with a curvy brown bottle of Michelob within reach. His is a voice that conjures images of intertwined couples swirling around dancehall floors with sawdust under their two-stepping feet, as yearning pedal steel wills wallflowers and bystanders into the spotlight. His is a voice that inspires the tipsy sing-along at the end of a night of revelry with his version of Keith Whitley’s “Dance With Me Molly”. In this realm of music born from heartache, pain, and loss, Granger’s voice is like a soothing balm; in our time when so many other country artists just don’t get it, Courtney Granger does, and he gets it right.
Purchase Beneath Still Waters: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/beneath-still-waters/id1145572234
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