Carly Pearce

• 29 [Big Machine EP, 2021] A
• 29: Written in Stone [Big Machine, 2021] A-
• Hummingbird [Big Machine, 2024] A

Consumer Guide Reviews:

29 [Big Machine EP, 2021]
See review of 29: Written in Stone. A

29: Written in Stone [Big Machine, 2021]
Since the perfect DL-only 29 EP this inflates into an album is here in three- and four-track chunks and the eight additional songs are OK-plus, my recommended strategy is to buy the album but then mostly play the EP you burn from it. OK-plusses include "Diamondback," about the stone of the album title, "What He Didn't Do," which includes "Treat me right, put me first, be a man of his word," and two drinking songs, both anti. But from the title "29"--"the year that I got married and divorced"--to the post-breakup closer "Day One," which progresses through days 17, 45, and 92, the EP is all about trying again, as for any 29-year-old it should be. A-

Hummingbird [Big Machine, 2024]
No matter who wrote 'em, and this Nashville up-and-comer has her name on all but one of these 14 acerbic tales of romantic shortfall, it's my working assumption that a gal whose love affairs fall apart all the time has been dumped or at least dismayed by a po'-faced parade of cads, dogs, and bores. So I was surprised to learn that when her 2019 marriage to newer up-and-comer Michael Ray dissolved, it was Ray who regaled the gossip sheets with plaints claiming his heart got more broke than hers did. Then I listened to his breakthrough Dive Bars and Broken Hearts EP and was struck by how dull not to say corny the songs were compared to his ex's, so maybe it was his ego hurting. If you want to start with what sounds to me like Pearce's sure shots here, try "Truck on Fire" ("So I found a little gas in a small red can/Last strike match flying out of my hand"), or "Woman to Woman" ("Woman to woman take it from me/From Texarkana to Tennessee/Ain't a roadside motel he ain't seen"). Then just play the whole thing. A