Valley-rooted musicians release variety of albums this fall

Oct. 22—It would've been understandable if new albums by Wabash Valley-rooted musicians Tracy Richardson, Susan Clark and Paul Bertsch never happened. Desire helped each push through adversities.

COVID-19 emerged in March of 2020, pushing the world into isolation. Clark was just about to begin recording her "Reflection" album at that moment. Still, the Terre Haute native and her team of fellow New Mexico-based musicians found ways to get it done. Clark's album will be released in early December.

Bertsch recorded his album "Martians and Earthlings" solo, his first without his longstanding band, and played all the instruments himself. "This is my pandemic project," Bertsch explained of its writing and recording through the past two years. The longtime Terre Haute resident, now living in Bloomington, released the 15-track album this summer.

For Richardson, recording "The Church in the Wildwood" album came in the wake of her husband George's unexpected passing last April. It's a compilation of old-time hymns, delivered in front-porch country jam style by Richardson, a Terre Haute singer-songwriter, and a team of Nashville musicians. "It helped salve the wounds," she said.

Richardson will release one single per month from the compilation until January, when the full album is released. The first, "Blessed Assurance" debuted Oct. 12 on Spotify streaming service.

Finding her place in world

Life's big questions loom large in Susan Clark's new 12-song album "Reflection," but they're surrounded by joy and lightheartedness, too. On "Running Out of Time," the 1971 Wiley High School grad digs into the biggest perplexities, especially for listeners of a certain age.

"How did we get here so fast?" and "Who are we anyway?" Clark sings in the piano-centered ballad. She reaches a realistic conclusion, answering, "I don't know, that's just the way our story chose to go."

Clark takes stock of her place in life, relishing youthful discovery in the lushly chorded "Blue Moon Lullaby (Austin's Song)" while also looking forward to a grand reunion with dear ones gone away on the R&B, sax-driven "Good Times." On the latter, Clark declares, "I can't wait to celebrate the good times once again." There's lots of emotions in between those, like the yearn for love in "Lonely Longing," wishing for "someone to cherish me."

She crafted the album with her former husband Randy Clark, who produced, engineered and played mandolin; and Scott Swezy, who also produced and played drums and percussion. Susan Clark wrote all 12 tracks, but co-wrote one, "It's Time," with Randy and another, "Good Times," with Ron Crowder.

It's a richly diverse blend of genres, with mandolin, pedal steel guitar, clarinet, ukulele, electric guitar and bass, upright bass, cello, harmonica and a horn section backing Susan Clark's piano, acoustic guitar and flawless soprano.

"The songs on this album came from my heart and my soul, and are truly a reflection of where I am today as an older person on the planet," Clark said last week from New Mexico, where she's lived for three decades. She hopes listeners "find common ground and comfort" in the topics she covers, including pondering life beyond this world in the ballad "I'll Be Watching Out for You."

Terre Hauteans might remember Clark from her days with popular local folk and rock groups Stillwater and Whole Wheat in the 1970s and early '80s, performing in venues like Bacchi's and the Village Inn. "Reflection" marks her fourth album, joining 1999's "Take Me Home," 2007's "Waitin' For the Wind" and 2013's "Sunlight of the Soul."

She's in peak form on this fourth release. It's a gentle, enjoyable, melodic "Reflection," expertly delivered. The bittersweet, '40s style shuffle "That Ain't the Way," with its clarinet accompaniment, summarizes the disc well. Clark wishes she and her contemporaries could go out with a night of wine, laughs and memories, before heading to heaven. That ain't the way it goes, though, she adds.

So, "the best advice I can offer is to live each day well," she croons.

Revisiting sounds of country faith

Every step of recording "The Church in the Wildwood," convinced Terre Haute singer-songwriter Tracy Richardson that she was destined to make the nine-song album.

Even its name seemed meant to be. "It just felt providential," Richardson said last week.

She grew up in Parke County and always loved the song, "The Church in the Wildwood." It reminded her of the church her family attended in Bridgeton. Richardson decided she'd include the 1850s hymn on the album.

The idea of Richardson recording an album of old hymns was suggested by her mother, artist Delores Collings, a year ago. Months later, when Richardson visited her mother to tell her the album's name, Collings was painting a picture of the Judson Church in rural, forested Parke County. It looked like a church in the wildwood.

Richardson then chose to include her mother's painting with the album's jacket art.

She asked her husband, George, a longtime musician himself, what he thought about recording an album of hymns. Given their goal of seeing Tracy record her original music, she thought he might balk at the hymn album. "He just immediately said, 'That is a fantastic idea. I want you to do that for your mom,'" Richardson recalled. "So I felt like I had his stamp of approval.

"It just feels like it was all planned up above, and I just jumped in the stream and went along with it," she added.

Richardson recorded it in Nashville, backed by veteran Music City session musicians who've performed with rock and country notables such as John Fogerty, Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton. Good friend and equally credentialed pianist Ron Oates produced Richardson's album.

Its tracks include "Blessed Assurance," "In the Garden," "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" and "The Old Rugged Cross," which was played at George's funeral after his sudden passing in April. Tracy included that hymn with the others when the recording sessions began in May.

"I felt like [George] was there in the studio with me," she said.

A 15-song autobiography

It's fitting that "Martians and Earthlings" is Paul Bertsch's first solo album, after four previous compilations with his longtime band, dating back to 1998's "The Traveller."

He wrote its 15 songs; played guitars, bass, keyboards and harmonica; recorded and mixed it. The songs glow with personality and Bertsch's exquisite musicianship. The album's topics are just as personal as its construction.

"There's a lot of autobiographical material on the album," Bertsch explained on Sunday.

It also looks beyond self, such as "Today I'm Brave," a stark acoustic-guitar number illuminating a loved one's struggle with an eating disorder. Likewise, the colorful "Cloverleaf Cafe" depicts life inside a real Bloomington eatery, where old-timers tell "the same old stories they've told since the '70s."

Bertsch's faith and "spiritual journey" inflects the songs, as does a worldview from a 60-something "avocational" musician, such as his "I Wanna Be a Folk Singer" and "Nothing is Becoming Everything." There's fun, too. On "Learning How to Dance," Bertsch mulls routine Christmas gifts for his wife, like diamond earrings, but then pitches a different idea. "Let's do what we've never done, let's learn to move our feet."

He examines the strange political toxicity and its divisive results. The plaintive title track "Martians and Earthlings" calls for a reconciliation, while the musically visual Mar-a-Lago, as Bertsch puts it, "is a lament of the Church's bizarre obsession with far-right populist leaders. Yes, Trump."

Perhaps most captivating is "City on a Hill." Bertsch's haunting harmonica and deft guitar picking accompanies a vision of "a distant place where they run and not grow weary, a burning light and a city on a hill."

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.