Closely drawn and intimate second from Austin-based banjo player and singer-songwriter.
Rita Bliss is a songwriter and banjo player who is based in Austin. One More Winter is her second album, following Peaches And Apple Pies (2024) and an EP, Live From London, earlier this year, culled from a show at Camden’s Green Note.
Produced by Bliss and Dom Fisher, One More Winter was recorded at Signal Hill Recording, Austin. Bliss wrote all the songs, provides lead vocals and plays a mean banjo. Supporting musicians include Billy Bright (mandolin), Fisher (guitar and bass), Noah Jeffries (fiddle), Jimmie Scott Calhoun (harmonies), and Patrick Herzfeld (drums).
There is a real living room feel to the record where you sense (correctly or incorrectly) the players are gathered together in a small space, connecting with Bliss’s songs and adding their own instrumental spin.
The record opens with Coming Home, a song you could definitely dance to, propelled by the banjo and fiddle, with Bliss inviting everyone down to Texas; Bright’s mandolin adds a lot of texture in the instrumental break. All My Days is an up-tempo sweet love song which has a folksiness as well as a rounded vocal that reminded this listener of Stephanie Davis. The playing is once again joyous.
Aimlessly takes the tempo down and dials the intimacy up. Banjo and fiddle intertwine as Bliss draws out a tale of quite domesticity and closeness. “Come sit a little closer / Come rest your head on me / Let’s watch the sunlight fading/ Have conversation aimlessly.” The next song, Honey, retains the intimacy, but focuses on home and love as sanctuary. The harmonica blown like it’s from a front porch only adds to the effect.
Some Say bounces along with a beat as banjo, fiddle, harmonica, and mandolin all weave the music around Bliss’ advocacy of being kind and good as an end in itself rather than as a (fictional) road to heaven. Based on 10 tracks, Some Say is likely the end of side 1. When we turn the record over, side two starts with the suitably jaunty The Highway, which takes Bliss and partner to the hills of Colorado as an escape from the Texas summer. Fiddle, banjo and mandolin, Bliss’ lead vocal and the harmonies provide a down-home setting as the song’s humour seeps through.
Empty Houses sees Bliss reminiscing about life further North, both the bad (the snow in April and the rain on Christmas Day) and the good (the Northern sky in July). Her banjo and Jefferies’ fiddle provide a stark accompaniment as Bliss recalls elements from her past life with real affection. The eighth track, Sometimes She Sings, opens with harmonica and, with the banjo, frames a super-affectionate portrait of a loved one.
Red kicks off at quite a lick with the fiddle as Bliss lays out the story of a town character: “She’s got trouble in her eye, and she’s on fire / She’s got trouble in her name and time to spare / She leaves trouble in her wake / She’s trouble just for trouble’s sake / More trouble than this little world could ever bear”. The final track, Silver City, is sung from the point of view of an itinerant miner who has been away from home a long time and yearns to return to their roots. The plaintive fiddle adds to the sense of longing.
One More Winter is a pretty short album, running to less than 30 minutes, but makes up for that with the quality of the songs and performances. Although the other vocalists are credited with harmonies, they go some way beyond that, with a couple of the songs being almost duets. This is a record where you can feel the warmth of the evening sun on the porch.
