GLORIA ANDERSON

                                                               "Wildwood Baby" 

                                                                Independent Release

With last years “The Moment,” 22-year-old singer/songwriter Gloria Anderson wrapped her warm vocal around the heart of the listener as she weaved through a touching tale from a mother’s perspective on watching her son growing up through the years while holding on to him as tightly as she could until she had to let him fly independently as an adult.

However, where 2022 really only leaned on that strong showing to make impact, the budding songwriter is off to a very hot start this year!

She released “Lighthouse” just two weeks ago and tickled our senses with harmonica and fiddle lacing over a singer/songwriter vibe that wrapped into a listening room type of acoustic plucking, and she now returns with her next new song of 2023, “Wildwood Baby.”

What is best described as a fusion of Appalachian Mountain kissing a bluegrass touched flare, the toe-tapping rhythm surrounds a front porch style during the quick intro before giving way to a mud stomper that moves your hips in the groove as Anderson punches her voice into the story of a wild child, Kentucky girl.

Describing our main characters personality through the opening verse, she says that she is strong as a Kentucky thoroughbred and has a mind of her own, while also skillfully introducing the influence that bluegrass music has had on her life ever since her grandpa first played it for her.

Switching momentarily into a rhythmic up and down, stop and go through the first few lines of the second verse immediately gets your boot heels clickin’ in perfect timing as she transports us straight to a Saturday night honky-tonk, providing an additional layer of depth to the character when we learn that she moonlights as a fiery fiddle player while namechecking Flatt & Scruggs and Ricky Skaggs echoing in her style.

Very cleverly, and a clear showing of her songwriting prowess, Anderson pumps the bridge full of prominent fiddle that perfectly mimics the main characters bow pulling across the strings as she stamps down one more row of facts about her:

“She don’t care about money

She don’t care about fame

Sometimes she don’t care to brush her hair

She ain’t down to be tame”

Gloria Anderson has shown over her past few releases that she absolutely has a full grip on her songwriting craft. However, rather than just sitting squarely in a comfort zone, she continually pushes herself in such smart ways that she bends genre lines, blurs her style, and creates an addictive aura that makes you want to keep listening. That’s exactly what she’s done again with “Wildwood Baby.”

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

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