St. Louis fav musician and vocalist, Beth Bombara releases a brand new album, It All Goes Up on August 4, 2023 (which just happens to be her 40th birthday), and follows with a record release party at Old Rock House on August 18.
The first song, “Moment,” starts the album off strong with sweet harmonies and a little honky-tonk twang. It’s about stepping back and taking a beat.
Produced in Bombara’s St. Louis home studio, the album’s second track “Lonely Walls,” which, according to a press release, started out as a pandemic love song for “a way to work through the separation from all of the people I love but then it morphed into this longing for one person.” The instrumental ending mixture of bass and rhythm guitar evokes a dream-like yearning.
The tenth and final track on the album, “Fade” was a sonic collaboration with John Calvin Abney. “He came through St. Louis on his own tour and stopped at my home studio before his show.” Abney played Rhodes piano and electric guitar. “He was there for maybe an hour and then gone, but he brought so much to the song in that short time,” says Bombara. The song came together as a beautiful closer to the album.
Each of the songs easily transitions to the next but also stands on its own. This album feels personal. It’s intimate yet accessible. It’s raw and refreshing. It’s sweet without being cloying. It has charm and personality. And yes, many of the tracks have twang but it’s not overly done. Blasted at high volume or at a more modest level, either one will evoke different, meaningful emotions.
“There’s more light, more hope in this record,” Bombara said of the album written during “the chaos of the past couple of years.”
The album title, It All Goes Up, comes from a lyric in the song “Electricity.”
“I wanted to take that line and add a little levity to it,” said Bombara. “On its own, the phrase ‘It All Goes Up’ is sort of open-ended, but to me, it encompasses the idea that everything can go up from here, that we are all moving towards something better, that there is hope even in the ashes.”
Order It All Goes Up from Black Mesa Records or we’re sure your favorite, local St. Louis record store will carry it once it’s available.
In my work life, I help nonprofits and small businesses with media and public relations. In my what I love to do life, you can typically find me photographing either wild horses or concerts.
