JAKE YBARRA

                                                                "Late November" 

                                                                Independent Release

It’s been since his 2020 EP, Basement Songs, that we’ve heard from promising singer-songwriter Jake Ybarra. While he intriguingly used those first four acoustic tunes as an introduction to his skillful songwriting, Americana tilted styled, and incredible vocal prowess, he now returns with his brand-new single “Late November” and not only gives us our first look at his forthcoming full-length album Something In The Water (due out April 7, 2023), but he also stamps down a bold display of tremendous growth in his craft.

The toe tappin’ picking of his acoustic guitar quickly reintroduces you to his strong Americana vibe as he brings together a fusion of classic country style and folksy elements that drives the insatiable rhythm and keeps you invested as he begins to unravel a story of a short-lived love/lust situation that continuously builds as their hearts swoon more and more as her time of leaving town is now upon them.

“She came home from Oklahoma,” Ybarra sings on the opening line as he sets the story the motion before placing it all on a timeline when he tells, “She only had a year here to get her act together, then on back out to where she was before,” confessing of her attitude later in the song that she had a pension for destruction and a smooth seductive nature about her.

While normally something of this subject matter tends to mostly gravitate toward a summer fling, that’s exactly why this one being set in “Late November” is so endearingly unique.

Using ultra-descriptive lines to set the late autumn placement, he sings poetically of how “the trees all look like scarecrows in the spring,” as he then paints vivid pictures of all the specific things they did together during their fleeting moments as time ticked away; Smoked slims, watched the sunsets, drank corn liquor, learned about each other, threw away their fears, etc. 

Skillfully, he uses different reference points in the chorus when talking about the people he knows in Oklahoma – a buddy in Tulsa, a cousin in Round Rock, etc. – signifying that he’s holding on to the idea that he’ll see her again after she leaves, while giving off noticeably nervous vibes in his vocals that tells the listener that in his heart, he knows he probably won’t.

In a truly traditional country way of story-based songwriting, Ybarra makes you listen all the way up to the final lines of the song to see if they ever meet up again or if it was only a memory of a moment in time where they fell for each other …and we aren’t ones to spoil that for cliffhanger for you. Click the play button on the music video below to give the song a listen and find out!

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

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