NEW BELLA WHITE. I REPEAT, NEW BELLA WHITE.
The Canadian native is blessing our ears on this fine New Music Friday with a beautiful cover. Bella White is covering a 1975 track from Ted Lucas. A master of blues, country, jazz, Middle Far Eastern, and contemporary music, Lucas is a skilled Motown studio musician who played balalaika, sitar, acoustic 6 or 12 string guitar and more for artists like The Temptations, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and others.
While some of his own music with The Spike Drivers and his other bands were heavily influenced by psychedelic drugs and were made for those to enjoy while on a trip, his one song, “I’ll Find A Way (To Carry It All),” is a perfect sad love song.
The lyrics depict a man wondering when his feelings for his partner soured, and he would do anything to regain the butterfly-like feeling they once shared.
If you know anything about Bella White, songs with this melancholy tone are right up her alley.
“I LOVE Ted Lucas! Jonathan Wilson showed me his song “I’ll Find A Way (To Carry It All)” when we were recording ‘Among Other Things.’ I wish I could hear it again for the first time. After that, we turned off the lights and recorded our own little version, and now I’m sharing it with you!”
White kept the original recording’s simple composition, which allows her airy Appalachian vocals to float through your speakers. Her twang and long, drawn-out notes drive home the hurt in the lyrics.
“Many’s the time
When love seemed so fine
And many’s the hour
It was so sweet
How did it get so sour?”
Bella White can truly do no wrong and her talent is amplified through simple lyrics and melodies like this one. While she is a songwriter mastermind, hearing her sing someone else’s lyrics allows listeners to just focus on her unbridled talent instead of dissecting the complex feelings of her own lyrics.
This is the definition of sad country songs that make us so incredibly happy. Turn this one all the way up.
