“Morning Rise”
Christian Lopez is a 19-year-old with the soul of a 65-year-old Appalachian mountain bluegrass musician hidden away inside, steeped in the roots of his West Virginia upbringing in Shepherdstown on the shores of the Potomac River at the northeastern panhandle tip of the state. On his debut full-length effort, Onward, the young artist emulates the sound produced by the region’s resident pickers and strummers, writing all but one of the songs on the album. Highlights include the Old Testament gravity of the focus track, “Leaving It Out,” the plaintive, yearning lament of “Seven Years,” the twangy pedal steel guitar lacing through “Morning Rise” and the whistling-past-the-graveyards fatalism of the ghostly goth-gospel “Oh Those Tombs,” a song Christian discovered in the public domain popularized by Hank Williams.
SPONSORED BY Blaster Records