Bridges, Mickey Guyton EP Review
More than five years after the release of her self-titled EP (2015), Mickey Guyton is back with a brand new EP that shows of her vocal talent, songwriting, and deserves to be heard, shared, and celebrated.
Bridges is a six-song collection that includes Heaven Down Here, What Are You Gonna Tell Her?, and Black Like Me (all released before the EP drop) as well as three new songs in Bridges, Rosé, and Salt. It comes in at 19 minutes, goes too quickly (I wish there were six more tracks), but doesn’t waste a single second.
This is not an EP for the Shut Up And Sing crowd, and thank God for that.
In a quote from the EP’s page at Apple Music, Guyton says, “I had never seen myself as an activist-artist, I was just trying to be like every other woman in country music…”, and that’s fair and that’s honest and it would be super fantastic if that’s the way it was and could be. But it’s not. And so Mickey Guyton is here, and it’s time to listen to voices and stories like hers. Like this one.
Mickey Guyton – Black Like Me
This is not an EP for the Shut Up And Sing crowd, and thank God for that. Mickey Guyton uses her voice to sing messages and stories and pleas for better from all of us. It’s admirable and strong and vulnerable and (in my opinion) important. And yes, I’m thankful for all of it. Hell, in her Twitter bio she says – They say, “shut up and sing.” So I put what I have to say in my songs.
Country music needed it. People needed it. And while it shouldn’t have fallen on Mickey Guyton’s shoulders to be the face of these messages in country music, she’s here and she’s doing it well.
In sports, we talk about players meeting the moment when they come through in big situations. Mickey Guyton has met the moment with her music. From Black Lives Matter to #MeToo, to the pandemic, and beyond, Bridges doesn’t shy away from the hard stuff, it runs at it headfirst and makes impact.
Note: We want to give some love to the Canadian connection involved in creating Bridges. With Emma-Lee, Victoria Banks, and Karen Kosowski (also the EP’s producer) helping to pen some half of the songs on the release.
Mickey Guyton – What Are You Gonna Tell Her?
Now, as heavy as the subject matter is on this EP, there’s some good-natured, light-hearted, take a breath and smile moments as well. Rosé is a pleasure that Guyton says she wrote because she didn’t feel like women had enough of their own drinking songs in country music. “Drink it from crystal or out of a can, as long as it’s cold and it’s here in my hand” is a straight country drinking lyric. Men, women, black, white, whine, whiskey, or beer – that’s a drinking song line and whether it’s the stark contrast to the weight of Heaven Down Here or Bridges, or just the happy smile it puts on my face, I appreciate it.
Salt also clocks in as more of a soft listen. It flips the script on the Cowboy Casanova archetype and sings the warning of a woman that’s up to no good. There’s a really good chance that women latch onto this one as their voice in the same old conversation that songs have been telling for decades. “Her kind of trouble should have come with a warning sign” indeed.
We’re this deep in and I haven’t said anything about the title track of the EP. Bridges is a song for right now. In the midst of continued protests of police brutality, systemic racism, and equality. “What I reach for you, you reach for me, closed the distance. What if that space between changed if we started building, bridges” might be a bit idealistic because there’s a reason that things have progressed to where they are now. But man, it’s what we need.
Mickey Guyton – Bridges
When I found out that there was a full EP coming from Mickey Guyton with the songs I already knew (and had been featured in the New Music Spotlight), I was excited. Excited for her because I’ve been in since I remember hearing Better Than You Left Me on Spotify playlists five years ago. Excited for country music because this is another talented voice that we should be hearing. And excited for the importance of these songs and their messages.
Bridges did everything I could have hoped for (short of being a full LP) and I’m excited to hear more from Mickey Guyton, though I know that preparing to be a first-time mom is going to take up A LOT of her schedule in the coming months and years.
Check out the complete Bridges tracklist here, hit play on the rest of the YouTube videos and/or stream, share it with your friends who need to hear it, and enjoy!
Mickey Guyton, Bridges EP Tracklist
1. Heaven Down Here
2. Bridges
3. What Are You Gonna Tell Her?
4. Rosé
5. Salt
6. Black Like Me
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[…] From the review – “Country music needed it. People needed it. And while it shouldn’t have fallen on Mickey Guyton’s shoulders to be the face of these messages in country music, she’s here and she’s doing it well.” […]