Carly Pearce - Honest Woman [2LP Milky Clear]

Carly Pearce goes back to the source on Honest Woman, her fifth studio album, pressed here as a coloured double LP across four sides.

This is a deliberate reconnection with the classic country and bluegrass that made her want to sing in the first place. Co-produced by Pearce and longtime collaborator Ben West, it favours narrative songwriting over gloss, the kind of story-first country that rewards close listening and sounds best with the lyric sheet in hand.

There is wit to spare. Church Girl and She Don't set the tone with sharp, plain-spoken writing, the voice of someone done apologising for who she is. The duet If I Don't Leave I'm Gonna Stay pairs her with Riley Green for a push and pull between walking out and holding on, two voices circling the same impossible decision.

Bluegrass royalty turns up too. Dan Tyminski and Molly Tuttle both join her on What If You Loved Me, bringing bluegrass harmony and a high, lonesome edge late in the running order. Elsewhere, sixteen songs move between sass, faith, heartbreak and hard-won self-respect.

Honest Woman sounds like an artist planting her flag firmly in country's roots, and this edition gives those songs the spacious, side-by-side treatment they deserve.

Tracklist

LP 1

1. Dream Come True
2. Church Girl
3. She Don't
4. You Can Have Him
5. How Long
6. Wwjd
7. Same Circus
8. Happy for Myself
   

LP 2

1. If I Don't Leave I'm Gonna Stay
2. I Don't Have the Heart
3. He Don't Like My Dogs
4. Leave My Heart Alone
5. Who's Lying Here
6. Daisy
7. What If You Loved Me
8. Why God Why Me