Calico Jim

North Georgia-based singer-songwriter Pony Bradshaw certainly has a fitting name for an Americana artist, plus the musical chops to back it up. Calico Jim draws from the long-standing tradition of Southern storytelling, with characters that would fit right into narratives by Flannery O'Connor or William Faulkner. The title track engages with the relationship between man and nature, a theme that features prominently in much of Bradshaw's work. "Dope Mountain" is a mournful ballad about the realities—good and bad—of rural life, with the powerful opening line "We took to stealin' copper wire/Stashed in a laurel slick down by the old mine." "Sawtoothed Jericho" is a fiddle-driven romp built on vignettes about finding a fictional plant with healing properties. Bradshaw's vocal, which falls somewhere between Charlie Worsham and Tyler Childers, is as fine as his songwriting, making for a standout new contribution to the crowded Americana canon.