CD Review:  Rachel Whitcomb – Wildest Dreams

By Dave Parsons

There are records you blast in traffic, adrenaline and bass pounding in your chest—and then there’s Rachel Whitcomb’s new album, Wildest Dreams, the kind you settle into your favorite rocker on your wraparound screened porch, pour yourself a glass of chardonnay, and spend the golden hour of a perfect summer evening taking this CD in. It isn’t an album to play at you—it’s one to sit with, like an old friend sharing her truth.

The whole CD is the kind of album that carries quiet strength. It doesn’t rely on catchy choruses or big hooks. Instead, it exists from intimacy, like a series of handcrafted letters written across years of life, hope, and sorrow.

Let me back up here and introduce you to the lady.

Rachel Whitcomb isn’t your average female country artist. She lives in the steel shadows of Pittsburgh and is seasoned by both academia and adversity. Whitcomb has built a life that refuses to sit in one box. She’s a breast cancer survivor, a scholar, and an artist stepping into her own spotlight.

Whitcomb can be found walking the halls of Duquesne University, where she serves as Associate Dean and an Associate Professor in the Mary Pappert School of Music. She holds a Ph.D. in music education from the University of Michigan and has spent the last two decades teaching, mentoring, and shaping young musicians. She is, quite literally, a teacher by day and torch singer by night.

She has overcome breast cancer, and some of those challenges come out in her writing. Knowing her background, you can hear pieces of loss, desire, and resilience stitched together in the songs that reflect someone who has lived through what she sings about.

She is a strong advocate for women’s empowerment in music, whether it be through her day job or through being a storyteller with lyrics and music. Think Reba or Martina, but with lyrics that are closer to Brandi Carlile or Suzanne Vega.

The title track leads off the CD in a nod to 90s country in all its glory, at the expense of a young lady making some bad choices…again……. Rachel could be playing the mom here, but it sounds more like her BFF calls to vent on the walk. Whitcomb even offers her friend a glimmer of hope with a one-word change in the tag line.

While introducing you to her friend, she slows it down while talking to a part of her past, telling them You’ll Want Me, even while leading their otherwise solid marriage and life.

I don’t know why the 3^rd song of country CDs usually leans toward the blues, but it holds here as Kryptonite is the metaphor for the equal parts of craving and curse.

A true tear-jerker ballad, and a case for the second glass of chardonnay, Live in the Lonely, brings Whitcomb to sitting next to you, contemplating life’s oddities.  This blends into the next track Promise, a string-laden love ballad.

The visit continues with the pure western swing feel, and talking to that part of your past again.  Whitcomb offers every reason why he is having a hard time Tryin’ to Quit Me.  The pendulum swings to the opposite end in the next track.  Sung for the unsatisfied spouses of the world, Flirt with Me, is the honest secret every man with no clue needs to put in front of him in plain English.

Picking it back up, Whitcomb puts the shoe on the other foot, stops begging her man, and just takes Control.  This song has some delicious guitar solos and drum work. Taking Me Down to the Blue is full of metaphors, taking you on a journey you can tailor to your own experiences.

The CD concludes with Can’t Say Goodbye, a heartache waltz of a woman with one foot out the door and the other still entrenched in hope for the future.

Wildest Dreams is an intimate package of well-composed, honest songs, delivered with a voice bearing scars and smiles. It’s for that alone time when you reach for reflection, a friend, and shared experiences.  It’s the courage to take the last sip of wine and write the journal entry you never had the nerve to write until now.

Wildest Dreams reminds us that vulnerability isn’t a weakness, as long as you find some resolution in it. It’s not just a collection of songs, but a masterclass in authenticity.  The kind of authenticity that country music used to have. Rachel Whitcomb may have come late to the country music world, but with this CD, she has found her home.

You can stream on all major platforms and check out her website at www.rachelwhitcomb.com