A New Definition of that Old Time Feeling - J.T. Crawford

★ MUSIC

S.G. Goodman celebrates the land, music, and lifestyle she loves, crafting a new definition of what it means to be a southerner.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE COVER of S.G. Goodman’s album "Old Time Feeling." It’s a vintage photo of a man holding a snake. What runs through your mind first? How does it make you feel?

“The day the album was released, and that cover was shared with the world, I did get some negative backlash,” says Goodman as she speaks to us by phone from her Murray, Kentucky home.

“That’s my dad,” she explains. “I’ve always loved that picture. I was taken at Bayou de Chien (a creek that runs through Fulton County and into the Mississippi River). He would sometimes show us animals to educate us, mostly about the dangerous side of things. Being a farmer’s kid, I spent most of my time outdoors, and I’d capture things and bring them in the house. My dad wanted to make sure his kids cold identify a poisonous snake—because if anyone was going to try and pick one up, it would have been me.”

Those who didn’t like the cover thought her dad was holding a dead snake. “It wasn’t dead,” explains Goodman. “He’s not the kind of person that would kill an animal like that. So I was kind of surprised at the reaction. I never want to offend people.”

As serendipity would have it, the misconception about the cover illustrated one of the themes Goodman conveys in "Old Time Feeling."

“We oftentimes look at things and are very quick to judge without knowing context,” she says. “That’s how some people look at southerners in general.”

Goodman, who grew up in Hickman, Kentucky (the city not the county), identifies strongly with the region from whence she came. She also recognizes the dichotomies of thought when it comes to the south. She makes that expression through songs such as “Old Time Feeling” and “The Way I Talk.”

"‘Old Time Feeling’ is applicable to what we are seeing in the world now,” says Goodman, “when, as a society, we are interrogating some very long-held social constructs around us. We’re asking if we should be nostalgic about certain parts of our past and history and ask if they’ve been portrayed in the right light. It also deals with a couple of things that are near and dear to my heart. One is socioeconomic justice. The other is misconceptions about the south. We get a lot of attention for our regressive policies, but we don’t get a lot of attention for our progressive initiatives. There’s a lot of judgment, but not a lot of grace to realize that people from rural places have been conditioned for generations to think the way they do. If we are going to paint a picture of the south, let’s paint a whole picture. Let’s not avoid the hard topics but also talk about the positive aspects that go on here and have been going on here.”

The idea crosses over to the song “The Way I Talk” where she tackles the common struggles of workers, specifically when it comes to agriculture. “I’m a farmer’s daughter. It’s a tricky thing to critique something that has brought food to my table my whole life. But even in my short life, I’ve seen the industry change to benefit even more the corporations who make the calls. I talk about how the ‘sharecropper’s daughter sings the blues of the coal miner’s son.’ In many ways, across multiple industries, we are all living in this big company store right now.”

Don’t think, however, that Goodman’s album is a straightforward lecture. She has a way of presenting her ideas poetically and with an openness that allows the listener room to stretch the imagination. “As a songwriter, you live in two different worlds,” she says. “I could just write lyrics that get the point across, but they may not be memorable. I could always say explicitly what I mean. But you have to take some distance and give people the opportunity to make it what they want it to be. My job as a songwriter is to be authentic and make sure when people leave my show they remember something.”

And even though there are themes within "Old Time Feeling," Goodman doesn’t describe it as a concept album. There are songs about aspects of society, and there are songs about relationships between two people reflecting both love and grief. “It’s a collection of songs written over time that portray my worldview at a particular moment,” she says. “There are some political aspects and some very personal ones. I don’t think those two have to be separated. It’s a collection of life—a glimpse at a moment in time. That’s how I can write a political song and then the next one be about heartbreak.” One such song is the hauntingly beautiful ‘Burn Down the City’ where Goodman compares the pain of a dying relationship to that of a traumatic event she witnessed as a child.

The album has, overall, a loose, soulful feel. There is a dreaminess in songs such as “Space and Time,” where Goodman opines that she “never wants to leave this world without saying I love you.” She also shows she can master driving grooves on songs like “Old Time Feeling” and “The Way I Talk.” The golden thread is the flowing sound of Goodman’s captivating vocals. This is the first time she worked with Jim James of My Morning Jacket who produced the album. She also incorporated as many Kentucky artists as possible, including the band she’s been working with for about a decade. "

"Old Time Feeling" was released back in July on the Verve Forecast label, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. It garnered attention from NPR, Spin magazine, and American Songwriter, just to name a few. There was even a writeup in Rolling Stone. And the attention is well-deserved.

Goodman is part of a new generation of proud, southern songwriters who do not necessarily fit the stereotype of what many think that means. Instead of taking their views and artistry and looking for greener pastures, they celebrate the land, music, and lifestyle they love, crafting a new definition of what it means to be a southerner.

"Old Time Feeling" is available via most retailers. Goodman, in her love for local record shops, urges buyers to shop with them whenever possible. Locally, it can be purchased at Terrapin Station in Murray, a record store that played a pivotal role in Goodman’s pursuit of music. For more info, visit sggoodman.net.