Bill Sheffield has "that voice," the kind that immediately grabs you by the heart and holds you close as he explores yet another lyrical landscape. A mainstay of Atlanta stages for years, Sheffield is a unique interpreter of song, not one to merely cover another writer's material, but to recreate it as his own. In the years of doing so, he's also found his own voice, a gospel-inspired, blues-tinged timbre that is the perfect vehicle for this new collection of his original compositions.
A departure from what one might expect, given his blues-soaked shows at locals like the Northside Tavern and Blind Willie's, this twelve-song set finds Sheffield delving deep into his roots, emerging with a rough-hewn, yet beautifully-crafted set of songs that fly in the face of Americana while accentuating the genre's best qualities.
The album starts off with the title track, a plaintive love song with an irresistible guitar hook, detailing what transpires between two hearts – and what ultimately keeps them together. From there, Sheffield takes the listener on an emotional roller-coaster, one not so much erratic and unsettling as it is reassuring and comforting, dealing with the ins 'n' outs 'n' overundersidewaysdowns of relationships. For a better understanding, listen to "Loving You," "Wild As The River" or "Hearing Things," songs that invoke the spirit of Jerry Jeff Walker and David Bromberg, but delivered with a nod to Johnny Shines and an impeccable finger-picking guitar style, finding Sheffield not only defining and perfecting his sound, but cementing his position as a songwriter in his own right. Tony Paris