Kelsey Blackstone – Lay You Down

To give the reader some idea of how impressed we were with the latest single from Kelsey Blackstone, we’ve had to take a break, compose ourselves, let the goosebumps go down and wipe the tears from our eyes. This is easily one of the best songs we’ve had for review to date.

While we were calming down, we did a little digging about Kelsey. Kelsey Blackstone is a vocalist, a multi-instrumentalist, the co-president of a music non-profit, a songwriter, and a teacher. On top of that she’s won awards and honours for her songs for social change.

Even if we hadn’t read all of these accolades, we are still recommending our readers to drop everything and go check out Kelsey’s latest single, Lay You Down.

Starting immediately with strong, confident solo vocals and building into a warm choir sound, with tantalising piano moments and a confident groove. There’s a really strong low end in the overall track which bolsters the warmth. The production on the vocal is world class. Kelsey’s voice is crystal clear and cuts through perfectly, even as the song develops and more instrumentation is added.

This is a song that keeps you on your toes. Its unpredictable and familiar all at the same time. Subtle changes and moments of drive in the rhythm section, with expertly played piano suddenly lead into an absolutely blistering electric violin solo! What will happen next?! So unexpected, so effortless and so beautifully executed that although your mind might be screaming “this isn’t the usual solo instrument for this genre”, your heart is already in love.

The violin playing continues after the solo, only fades in to the background as it was before, but this time, with some virtuoso arpeggiated playing, amidst yet more stellar piano playing.

For us, its the vocals. What a supremely talented vocalist we have here. Kelsey’s voice is SO versatile. With moments of gentle jazz/ soul, through to out and out belting, twang, and the portamento on the vocal at 2m20s could rival Freddie Mercury on a good day.

We were reminded in places of Amy Winehouse, Eva Cassidy and possibly Joanne Shaw-Taylor, but honestly, with the versatility of Kelsey’s voice, you could pick 100 top vocalists that she sounds a “bit like”. Truth be told – this is second to none. Most definitely one of the best vocalists we’ve heard in months.

Kelsey Blackstone earns an easy 5 out of 5 ears from us. If we could give this song 6 we would. Please, please can we hear more!