CHARLY REYNOLDS - Visiting Hours - Independent Release

Layering the path to her debut album with recent singles “Love You Long,” “Somebody In Love,” and “People Think,” rising country music starlet Charly Reynolds has continually amped the buzz with her stellar vocals, grafted melodies, and an honest transparency within her lyrics that adds flares of connection factor.

With her latest effort, “Visting Hours,” the fourth of five songs she plans to release ahead of the album, Reynolds delivers pure vulnerability and emotional wavering in a prayer like conversation with her late brother.

Co-written by Charly with frequent collaborators Nicole Croteau and Chris Utley, the song is crafted with simplicity in its instrumentation that’s guided by the subtleness of fiddle to really capture the essence of the lyric and the soft tonality gripping her incredible vocal performance.

On the surface, she’s simply filling her brother in on everything that’s been going on in their life down here since he left – their mom still teaching at the same school, herself finally making the big move to Nashville to chase her music dreams, dad having a few more grey hairs, them having a new younger brother, etc.

However, it’s the feelings wrapped into the delicate ebbs and flows of her voice that carry the depths of the missing you heartbreak that she’s really trying to figure out how to say, almost as if she’s using the small-talk to work up the courage to cry the much-needed tears when telling him that she wishes she could get one more minute with him.

Placing emphasis on the lead ins to each of the choruses, Reynolds tugs heartstrings when she endearingly asks if he could find an angel or if he’d ask God to open the gates to heaven for just a few minutes so she could swing by, hug his neck, see his smile, and just say hi to him while letting him know that she loves him.

“I wouldn’t miss it, been sitting here wishing

They’d open them gates, even just for a minute

I’d be right on time, be the first one in line

And I’d show up with flowers

If heaven had visiting hours”

We’ve all experienced the loss of important people in our lives and even though we believe with absolute truth that they’re in a much better place, their loss leaves an unrepairable hole in our everyday lives until we meet again.

Like Reynolds shows on “Visting Hours”, it’s often difficult to find the words for our emptiness and our confused battles with anger, sadness, vivid memories, etc. Sometimes we just need to talk it all out to them/with them as we try to find the right words to say, knowing that while our words might be failing us that they can hear through our small talk what our heart is really trying to express…I Miss You!

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)