A debut packing many aspects of his musical personality into an album, which shows promise.
Elton John has apparently claimed on his podcast that Alabama artist Kashus Culpepper is what would happen, “if Bill Withers made country music.” Starting with the slightly tired trope of a fake radio show as the invite into the album, he bursts into ‘Southern Man’, a cracking southern rock song which is more Robert Cray on steroids featuring Marcus King on Albert King-lite guitar. It’s a powerful statement of intent to embrace his southern roots. That is reinforced by ‘Alabama Beauty Queen,’ a gentler but equally good song which is over at the soul/pop end of country, if such a thing exists. The blizzard of overlapping Guitar, pedal steel and Banjo lines threatens to overwhelm the vocal for the central part of the song, giving the tune a sense of impending chaos.
We keep to a more soulful sound with the southern groove of ‘Woman’. This is where he sounds most at home. It’s also one of the songs where there isn’t a list of three plus writers. A properly good soul song which mixes traditional with modern effectively. With ‘Break Me Like’, the album has definitely hit its stride, and the Bill Withers comparison makes sense. This midtempo Country Soul tune, with its piano accents and a vocal that lets him extend his singing rather than tipping over into a bluesy rasp, was written with Foy Vance, proving that teaming Culpepper with one sympathetic co-writer rather than the more extensive list of credits elsewhere is the best option for him. ‘Believe’ is another Albert King-style tune, but it feels that the influence is probably second-hand via Robert Cray. The spaghetti western guitar and organ give this minor key tune a slightly sinister feel.
At 18 songs long, there was always going to be some filler, and the string-drenched soul of ‘Stay’ is best glossed over. With many debut albums, there is the temptation to use every passable song that he has written, having lived with them for a good while. The rather Country-by-numbers songs like ‘Mean To Me,’ which has an almost Coldplay feel to it, or the pop-soul of ‘Is It True’ could perhaps have been left on the shelf to be developed more fully for album number two.
‘Broken Wing Bird, an acoustic duet with Sierra Ferrell, is a delightful traditional country tune, and one of the best songs and performances here. That song, along with the bluesy ‘After Me’, suggest another strand to his career, building on this aspect of his music away from the more soulful band sound. Having said that, soul ballad ‘Cherry Rose’ with a tune that owes more than a nod to The Commodores ‘Easy’ is where strings work for him. ‘House On the Hill’ picks up his country blues side to close the album. A fiddle opens the tune with one of his more impassioned vocals over a sparser arrangement that keeps threatening to take off but never quite does.
As a debut, “Act 1″ does its job of presenting Kashus Culpepper to the world. His bio tells us that he picked up a guitar and started writing songs only in 2020, while in the US Navy, which makes this album a considerable achievement. The bio also tells us that he is “a Southern man making Southern music, drawing from every influence that shaped him in that small Alabama town.” The album was produced by Brian Elmquist of folk band The Lone Bellow, and he’s also one of the main writing partners. A firmer hand on the production levers might have suggested that a shorter, more coherent album might have been a better option for Act 1. It will be interesting to see where Kashus Culpepper goes with Act 2.
