Richard Lynch’s My Guitar Drips Country LP

It’s pretty common when seeing a movie or television show that they’re “inspired by true events,” only for you to later google the real story and find out it had nothing in common with what you’d just heard. Well, with Richard Lynch’s My Guitar Drips Country, we might have the first album inspired by a Facebook conversation. Lynch isn’t secretive about this information either, and it only adds to the earnestness he showcases across 12 charming tracks.

WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lynch_(musician)

Lynch, no stranger to the country scene, essentially a veteran having  topped many charts both domestic and international and has frequently collaborated with an assortment of Grammy nominees and winners, brings a much needed sense of levity and a call to action that we must overcome our differences and find the love hidden within one another to truly make a better change as showcased in the track “He’ll Make Everything Alright.” Lynch has also co-founded the Love Tattoo Foundation which assists with veterans programs and you can tell that his many years giving back to those who’ve put their lives on the line for our country have made an undoubtable impact in the music, such as the opener aptly called “Starting Now,” which sees a down on his luck older man now turned around with help from the lord and those around him. To not draw the parallels that are certainly there would be an insult.

Lynch weaponizes his unique brand of nostalgia to create a universal feeling and sound, that any die-hard country fan will take to immediately, but I can imagine some newcomers depending on their mileage with religious content might find a little trickier to get into, but Lynch knows this too as with tracks like “Places I Have Never Been” which finds him conversing with what you could assume to be a country novice who feels that they can’t imagine they’ll relate, but Lynch soothes in a non-condescending manner that country is more than dirt roads and beer, but a way of life rooted from how we build stories and joy out of tragedies. Lynch also knows when to cut back and have some fun as he does with the family formed diddy “Grandpappy” which is about what you’d expect, but is wildly charming all the same.

BUY THE ALBUM: https://ffm.to/lynchguitar.ofp

In the track “Hurting Cheatin Lying Country Song” he even pokes fun at country criticizers and the music alike, mocking the need to be so binary in subject matter, but also saying that there’s a place for these kinds of songs as a form of catharsis as I’m sure many Americans need in this trying time. Lynch knows that to go forward we need to go back and appreciate what we have in the now, such as the song “Cathead Biscuits” which sees him remembering his mothers cooking, a little catchy tune that holds a lot more significance when we get to “Wait for Me” which sees Lynch chronicle the last days of his time with his Mom. It’s honest, earnest and entertaining work.

Michael Rand