Thrown on Abby Hamilton’s brand-new record, “#1 Zookeeper (of the San Diego Zoo),” and you immediately let your guard down. You breathe a little easier.
On lead track “Lucky,” Hamilton cracks open the story of an airport lounge singer in a sing-speak delivery reminiscent of Missouri icon Sheryl Crow. Before ever transmitting her open, sunburst chorus, Hamilton puts you at ease; you can be yourself in the presence of this singer, you feel, because she understands her characters. By the transitive property of music, she understands you.
The Kentucky native will bring fresh songs — and experienced earned during slots with everyone from Shakey Graves to The Mountain Goats and Wynonna — to a Columbia tour stop this weekend.
This sort of disarming familiarity rings throughout “#1 Zookeeper,” in songs that lean into 1970s rock and ’90s folk while forever hinting at their country roots. “Good Thing” throws itself into the void with lovely harmonic layers. The title track finds Hamilton’s imagination spiraling to the edges of control, her mind working over how great her old flame’s new lover must be:
“She probably reads the New York Times or went to Harvard / Or won some kind of Nobel Peace Prize / I bet she’s the number one zookeeper at the San Diego Zoo / And all she wants to you is touch you, good for you.”
Again, the song sounds Crow echoes, alternating wordless vocals and plainspoken, strong-enough storytelling over a digital undercurrent and steady-on guitars.
Elsewhere, each word of “Mayday” sounds conversational while “Soccer Field” sounds out a waking dream filled with little pleasures. “Satisfied” is gorgeous and woozy, like a Mazzy Star song filtered through a Jenny Lewis lens; “I’m no stranger to the things that make love good / And people fall hard,” Hamilton repeats like a romantic creed.
One of the record’s truest highlights, “Whatever Helps You Sleep” teases Fleetwood Mac-like guitars as Hamilton delivers a litany of the people, places and things that help her characters get over and through.
Your can hear yourself in Hamilton’s songs when she plays Rose Music Hall at 7:30 p.m. Sunday with Vulvette. Tickets are $12-$15. Visit https://rosemusichall.com/ for more.
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at [email protected] or by calling 573-815-1731. He’s on Twitter @aarikdanielsen.