New Jersey-based artist Tabitha Booth is a singer-songwriter with a powerful force both live and recorded. Over her career, she’s caught the attention of festival bookers and the press and now releases a fresh EP Highway To The Heart.
Starting with the title track, Tabitha sets the tone with an atmosphere of reflective lyricism and a blend of optimistic and dark instrumental melodies. The flute elements add a uniqueness; their crying melodies are slowly affected by the distortion that infects the guitar licks. Reaching heartfelt climaxes and never letting up in tempo, it leads into ‘Sleeping Close to Oblivion’.
With an echoey beginning, the track becomes an emotional, ballad-tinged poem with a grooving rhythm section. The bass and drums are tight and onward moving, leaving room for the vocals to take on a more expressive feel.
‘Cities In Dust’ is the perfect cover to throw into this EP, taking on new life and slotting wonderfully into Tabitha’s established style. Her calls, and the arrangement’s momentum all feed into all of the introspection and struggle we’ve heard so far.
The final track, ‘Truth Repeats Itself’, starts as a lower acoustic submission, but it expands into a cinematic finale. Tabitha finds her solace but remembers the journey she had to take to get there.
Tabitha adds, “The title track, “Highway to the Heart” is a song about oppression and escape through the feminine lens. I wrote the lyrics in honour of my mother who taught me that having a big heart and willingness to give, that having empathy and emotional depth, does not, in fact, mean that the world will reciprocate any of it; they will not have etiquette, respect or gratitude; and might bleed you dry while they remain unconscious at the wheel. Confronted with this, most people will subconsciously look for an escape route… or create an identity to escape into where self-acceptance can be found. Isn’t that, in some ways, what all this AI and digital technology – innovation – serves?”
