S.G. Goodman: Particular Southern Viewpoint
Singer-songwriter S.G. Goodman certainly tapped into her traditional Kentucky upbringing when writing her debut album, Old Time Feeling. But that didn’t stop her from also using her latest batch of songs as a way to reconcile what it means to be a gay woman with specific political beliefs in the American South. “I’ve remained in Kentucky for most of my life, though so many folks have told me that I should leave my home for more like-minded people,” says Goodman, who grew up in the town of Hickman. “Kentuckians are my people. Even if the folks that I feel the need to speak up for have different views than mine, I still deeply care about them. I care about my family being able to make a living off of the land. I care about the folks around me who are breaking generational cycles and who are actively trying to make the South a safe place for everyone. I wanted to make an album that represented those feelings—one that took special care in portraying my home and the people there in the beautiful way I know them to be.” Old Time Feeling was primarily recorded with Kentucky hero Jim James at La La Land Studios in Louisville after Goodman met the My Morning Jacket frontman through a mutual friend. James got on board after hearing a demo of “Red Bird Morning” and helped Goodman flesh out her material in the studio. “We went into this record knowing that, with his touring schedule, Jim’s studio time would be limited,” Goodman notes. “So a lot of work was done in advance, corresponding about song structures and other ideas through email months prior to us being in the studio. We spent a lot of time after the actual tracking was finished together in LA listening back to mixes with engineer Kevin Ratterman.” After recording Old Time Feeling, Goodman signed with Verve Forecast and was set to tour with Nada Surf this spring before the novel coronavirus derailed her plans. But she hopes to take her songs, and her stories, on the road in the near future. “I felt like it evoked the sentiment of what this album captures,” she says. “A particular point of view of the rural South, and the acknowledgement of the generational cycles we face and are trying to change.”
