From Birmingham, Alabama, Kyle Kimbrell has been offering high‑end Americana music since the release of his 2014 EP, Nobody’s Fool. One of the nicest guys in Birmingham, Kyle is one of the smoothest deliverers of fine lyric this side of the Jackson Brown line. An accomplished songwriter, Kimbrell’s sound has been described as “cosmic American music, ” that ranges from the swinging front‑porch blues to the spaced‑out Americana/alt‑country, painting a diverse and deep musical landscape. His songwriting resonates with soulful melodies and reflective‑suburban myths, rural hard luck and a city filled with iron ore, capturing the essence of times from way back when to now. Kyle delivers a message for the nervous, glass‑half‑empty folks with enough room for a hopeful change in perspective. Despite the storms, hypochondria, and paranoid sense of simple things going wrong, Kimbrell makes us believe we’ll make it anyway, damn it.His presence in the Birmingham music scene has left an indelible mark, and his work continues to captivate audiences with its heartfelt storytelling and musicality. Easy Truths is Kimbrell’s second full‑length album, the follow up to 2020’s highly regarded From Rust To Real. While Rust was recorded at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, MS with Matt Patton, Kyle decided to stay home and record Easy Truths right down the street at Boutwell Studios in Birmingham with his good friend and producer Brad Lyons. With Lyons at the production helm, Kimbrell’s music breathes deep and cuts deep. With help from Liz Vann on harmony vocals, Daniel Raine (Little Raine Band) on keys, Ford Boswell (Early James) on pedal steel and Adrian Jose Marmolejo holding the bass down, Easy Truths speaks it clearly and reeks authenticity and easy power.   His last one was recorded with Matt Patton of Drive‑By Truckers, and there’s some of that about the rock n roll of “Holy Bombs” this collection, though, was recorded back at home in Birmingham, Alabama (not the one that I live just outside) and there’s something of the south about “Punk Rock Girl” although it has trippy air that you might think was the preserve of Wilco. The best thing about this, mind you, is that there are no rules. Not one. “Poor Donny” adds some bar‑room piano, a filthy harmonica and a working class air that might tempt Dan Baird out of retirement. If Donny was “15 deep” at the saloon bar, then “Bar Rat” is world weary. The character is “throwing my aggression around at the bar” and you sense it’ll envelop him at some point. And I say “character” because you get the sense that a bit like Springsteen, he’s expressing his worldview through the eyes of others. “In The Shit (Phil’s Song)” sees him sing “I’ve given up dreaming big, from my place down in the shit, I am coming home” And maybe accepting your lot is the point here, the point of “Easy Truths?” Whether that’s the case or not, there’s a bit of the brilliant Bohannons about the way that “Take My Rest” lurks around, and “Singing A Tune” is timeless as Americana gets.Kyle Kimbrell has simply mastered this in a way few do. “Letters From Home” wraps its reflection (“how long has it been since last time?) in a hook that somehow sticks in, and “New World Order” proves something that we haven’t really mentioned yet, and that’s just how good the music is alongside this. There are only two songs over four minutes long here, and the last one, “Wine Of Youth” is one of them and it’s got quite the heavy chorus. “Oh to be young again, with nothing but life to give” he sings. Yet it does sound hopeful, somehow, like it was cathartic and if music this good is being made, life can’t be all bad?” 2. Song Premiere: Kyle Kimbrell “Holy Bombs” By Melissa Clarke, Americana Highways – February 14, 2024 “Americana Highways brings you this premiere of Kyle Kimbrell’s song “Holy Bombs” from his forthcoming album Easy Truths, which is due to be available on April 5 via Cornelius Chapel Records. Easy Truths was produced by Brad Lyons and was recorded at Boutwell Studios in Homewood, Alabama. “Holy Bombs” is Kyle Kimbrell on acoustic guitar and vocals; Brad Lyons on electric guitar, bass, and percussion; and Liz Vann on harmonies. With a title like “Holy Bombs, ” your curiosity is automatically piqued. Opening with a description of the childhood game with your hands clasped and “open your hands and there’s all the people” catches a universal experience. And then grooving over a bluesy rhythm and a respectable roots rock arrangement, thissong is a hard look into sinners and the harmful ideas that breed in religion at the lowest level. “I believe it’s just a choice you make … they’re one and the same, Krishna and Buddha, just man made names, but we’re killing each other at an alarming rate, sometimes over a parking space.