One of the coolest things that Zac Brown has done since becoming a wildly successful artist with his Zac Brown Band is to 'pay it forward' with the opening of his Southern Ground Artists record label.  With a roster of Levi Lowrey, Nic Cowan, and Blackberry Smoke, Zac's really setting up the label with artists who are more are much like himself, not cookie-cutter and strong artists in their own right. This brings us to Sonia Leigh, the first artist signed to Southern Ground Artists to get a full album project released.

And what a great first album it is.

In the tradition of fine singer/songwriter records from Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Mary Gauthier and Bonnie Raitt comes 1978 December.  The record if a lean 10 song collection featuring much of the Zac Brown Band throughout the course of the album (all but fiddler Jimmy Di Martini) but it is really the lyrics and melodies crafted by Sonia Leigh (who wrote all but two songs by herself – these two others are Zac Brown co-writes). Zac Brown co-produced with Matt Mangano, John Driskell Hopkins and Clay Cook.  

“Aint Dead Yet” has all of the swagger of a rockin’ Miranda Lambert or Brandi Carlisle track while lead single “My Name Is Money” (which is in the Top 50 on Billboard’s country charts) shows off more swagger but in this song she’s narrating as money itself and talking about everything it can and can’t do and how human life revolves around it. While it’s easy to dismiss the concept of the song as too ‘different’ for country radio, both the band’s musical performance and Sonia’s killer vocal and lyrics really drive home the song and if it were to have come out from ‘Ran or Carrie Underwood, it’d have been one of the biggest hits of this summer. Still, despite all of that, It’s a great song and great songs make their way through in one way or another and this one is doing just that.

If you’re looking for traditional country roots, look no further than “Bar, and “A Poem From The Ocean Floor.” Both take on different aspects of traditional country roots, with “Bar” taking on a familiar theme about trying to ‘quit drinking.’ It’s a fun song and would make for a smart single somewhere down the line while “A Poem from the Ocean Floor” is a lyrical gem about everything a woman who would do anything for the special person in her life that she just can’t seem to break away from. 

The Zac Brown co-writes “If You Won’t Tell” and “Roaming” are both interesting for different reasons. “If You Won’t Tell for the swampy blues of the lyrics and melody and for the Calypso feel of “Roaming,” a song which also features Zac on vocals and finds Sonia Leigh singing a song that wouldn’t be outtaplace as a ‘quiet’ place on an Adele record.

There’s not a bad track to be found on 1978 December and the title track album ender just proves this point with perhaps the best story (a song written to her parents) and performance on the song all set to a mostly acoustic arrangement to the track.

Read: New Artist Spotlight: Sonia Leigh

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