Kimberly Atwood’s “Miss You Still” is the latest Americana single from the Ozark Mountain born performer. Raised in a music rich blue-collar background, Atwood has long since pursued her musical ambitions in Nashville. She’s experienced considerable success thus far with numerous live appearances at several top-flight Music City venues. Her reach extends past the confines of country music’s home, however, and she’s experiencing greater degrees of success wherever her music reaches. “Miss You Still” emphasizes the genre’s classic elements while remaining a vibrantly current track.
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Much of this is due to the vocal spell Kimberly Atwood casts over listeners. She has a voice deftly balancing seemingly incompatible extremes. Atwood manifests unquestioned delicacy with her vocals but attentive listeners will hear deceptive strength. She glides through the song’s assorted changes as well as the lyrical material with confidence she wears like a loose garment. It’s a case of the singer lingering in a spell. She is taken by the moment and we, the listener, are invariably happy to accompany her on the journey.
The pedal steel guitar scattered throughout the track does more than pay homage to time-tested musical values. It accentuates the loneliness in the heart of the song, as evidenced by its title if nothing else, Atwood, returning once again to the vocal, expertly invokes that emotion. She never does it with ham-fisted theatrics, however, but instead well-tuned performing instincts that open vistas into the song.
The moderate, if not slow, tempo of the song gives her a good foundation. The Americana/classic country influences are obvious from the outset though Atwood never leans heavily on worn-out tropes. Some may decry the pedal steel as exactly that, as synonymous as songs in country music about your mother, but the instrument is never ornamental in her hands. It serves a clear purpose in the song’s arrangement.
She likewise tailors the song’s length to an ideal running time. There’s no sense of grandiosity in Atwood’s music but, instead, a clear emphasis on intimacy. These are quiet and condensed songs and the latest, “Miss You Still”, comes across as human as it gets. Her music, words, and voice never shy away from portraying human frailty in all its beating and breathing glory.
Atwood’s artistic momentum spikes with each new release. She is steadily building one of Nashville’s most impressive new discographies with work that defers to tradition while fiercely embracing its ultimate independence. “Miss You Still” doesn’t try going in for the Big Statement, or some sweeping country weeper classic, but instead speaks to concerns closer to the every day human heart. It is a touching and musically vital recording that will long stand among Kimberly Atwood’s finest moments.
“Miss You Still” has a warm yet pristine sound as well. She inhabits the soothing and yet full musical surroundings with a generous if melancholy spirit. Kimberly Atwood’s latest single is arguably her finest achievement yet and she shows no signs of slowing down. “Miss You Still” is just the latest peak in an incredible journey far from finished.
Chadwick Easton