By: Eric Reyes
May 14, 2021

Bri Fletcher is quickly becoming a genre-defining voice in the Country music genre. And, after listening to her latest release, ‘Love Me Back’, I can understand why.

While I won’t try to typecast an entire genre (I’ll admit half the emo bands I listened to as a kid were pretty much the same), quite often women in the genre will lean towards ‘I was loved and left and now I’m angry’ and ‘dirt roads and trucks, but like, for girls.’ This is less a critique of women in the genre, or the genre, as it is a critique, and symptom, of the industry and market. Lowest common denominator. Accessible and unchallenging.

Bri Fletcher is here to challenge you. Her voice has the subtle notes of an accent, influenced more by the structural conventions of her genre influences than attempting to conform to any studio-approved tone. There’s a muscularity to it at times that really benefits the performance. While her overall tone is bright and wide open, the mentioned muscularity gives it more of an earthy, impassioned sound that is often attempted, rarely successfully accomplished. Her vocal strength is beyond question, with nuances here and there that seem to borrow a bit from Pop and, I’d say, Soft-Rock.

The production backing her performance is very well polished. There is the twang and acoustic styling to be expected, the welcome banjo, but they’re here to do a job, not just take up space in the background. Genres are defined by their working parts, and the instrumentals here follow tried and true stylings that work in tandem with the more modern electronic mix and layering. It was reinvigorating, as I’ll admit Country is not my forte.

While that may be, I can say that Bri Fletcher has won at least one new fan, and I love her work if I am not necessarily her genre’s devotee.

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