Country singer Mickey Guyton has been on my playlist since the beginning of her career. She is back after five years since her last EP, “Mickey Guyton,” with the EP “Bridges.” This latest project from Guyton is a much-needed EP for not only the country music genre, but for the world at large.
Four of the six songs on this project reflect the state of what’s going on in the news and in the world around us. Right from the first song “Heaven Down Here,” the scene is set for what’s in store for this timely EP.
“Hey God, it’s me,” sings Guyton. “I hate to be a bother, but I could use a minute or two. Yeah, I’m just so heartbroken, disappointed, in the way this world is coming unglued. And I can’t help but wonder are you?”
“Heaven Down Here” is a thoughtful anthem, but if the listener thinks that’s as deep as Guyton can go, they would be mistaken. On the title track “Bridges,” Guyton lets the listener know she is ready to bare it all and tell it exactly how she sees it.
“You’re on your side and I’m on mine,” sings Guyton. “And in between this great divide. There’s fire in the street. People on their knees. Holding bibles and breaking glass. Guns and armor. Tears and gas. If smoke is all we see. How we supposed to breathe?”
Her message of the song is that we need to build bridges and figure out things together. Mickey Guyton is one of the few black country singers out there right now and it’s nice to see that she is willing to shows us who she is and not hold back.
One of the things that I love about Guyton is that she cares. Guyton shows love to her fans and has responded to my Tweets over the years. She cares about anyone who is discriminated against in any way. Guyton is a supporter of the LGBT community and she performed at GLAAD’s “Nashville: The Concert for Love and Acceptance” in 2019 to show her support. She cares about how women, regardless of race, are not being treated fairly in the music industry. This very problem inspired Guyton’s third track on this EP, “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?”
“Do you just let her pretend that she can be the President,” sings Guyton. “Would it help us get there any faster? Do you let her think the deck’s not stacked? And gay or straight or white or black. You just dream and anything can happen.”
After Guyton has expressed her feelings so openly and deeply, she gives herself and her listeners a break with two tracks that are fun.
The fourth track here is “Rosé” and let me tell you, it’s a major change from everything we’ve heard thus far. Guyton deserves to have fun and so do we.
The sixth track is “Salt” and it’s sassy with an edge. To me, it has a definite Carrie Underwood vibe.
“Yeah, she’ll break your heart like it doesn’t matter,” sings Guyton. “Yeah, she’ll play the part just to climb the ladder. She’s got you blind, but I see it all. You think you’re getting sugar. But boy, you’re getting salt.
Both of these tracks are more of what we’d expect from a female country singer these days, but that’s refreshing and important. She should be able to sing songs like these and then go right into a song like her final track here, “Black Like Me.”
“Black Like Me” is a vocal that is gorgeous, sad, and lived-in.
“It’s a hard life on easy street,” sings Guyton. “Just white painted picket fences far as you can see. If you think we live in the land of the free. You should try to be black like me.”
Guyton has the vocal chops. She has the heart. She knows how to deliver a song and how to create a must-listen EP. Hopefully Guyton doing things her way will help people from all walks of life feel like there are more bridges in Nashville than walls.
