BY IAN ASPINALL

Following on from my interview with Morgan Wade last summer, which I did while she completed a sold out tour in the UK including 2 London dates during a train strike and in the hottest part of the year. She has gone from strength to strength. She has recently toured here again, and played at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Highways Festival. In the US she’s been touring with Luke Combs, Chris Stapleton and Ashley McBryde. 

She told me last year she was working on some new songs for a new album and she was right in the studio after returning from her tour here. She recorded about half of what is being released on Friday August 25th. Produced by Sadler Vaden, they put a pause on recording while touring commitments took up their time and also agreed that they needed to make an album they were proud of so took some time. Returning to the studio earlier this year, the rest of the album was completed and what’s been created is beautiful. 

We are already familiar with a couple of songs: title track ‘Psychopath’ was released earlier this year and more recently the most pop-like song ‘Fall In Love With Me‘ was released recently with accompanying video featuring Wade’s close friend, reality TV star Kyle Richards. 

The whole album still has the general feel of Reckless in that it explores Wade’s life, her struggles and her successes; however, even the grittier songs like ’27 Club’, dealing with reaching that milestone and still being unsure what happens next, or ‘Guns and Roses‘ seem a bit more polished. ‘Alanis’ deals with being a female performer and having to navigate the fraught world of constant judgement and being able to put herself out there. 

The release of this album has the backdrop of a significant increase in Morgan Wade, both because of her music and fully justified popularity from that, but also her friendship with Ms Kyle Richards who has recently split from her husband, with a lot of speculation arising that Wade had some involvement. Understandably no comment has been made by either party but they do appear to have played on the interest with the release of the aforementioned video for ‘Fall In Love With Me’. Throw into the mix Wade’s discovery that she has an increased genetic risk of breast cancer and the decision to undergo surgery later this year, this album release probably couldn’t come at a busier time.

With Wade’s Virginia twang still permeating much of the singing some tracks feel pure country, like ‘Psychopath’ or ‘Outrun Me’, which is reminiscent of Kacey Musgraves’ ‘Merry Go Round‘, while other songs feel slightly further away – a little more pop country. 

I am a fan of Morgan Wade and have been eagerly awaiting this album since its mention last summer. Whilst I don’t think any song will reach the same level of wider popularity as ‘Wilder Days’, ‘Fall In Love With Me‘ will probably make a bit of a mark because of its association with Richards and the Real Housewives fan set, and it’s progressive (in Nashville terms) video, the album as a whole I think is very good. A real mix of songs dealing with a variety of topics permeated with throughout with Wade’s distinctive voice.

I’ve not included a full tracklisting so as not to completely ruin the surprise on release day.