Expect: Songs about the wrong end of the bottle and the weary traveler far from home, as well as references to the mighty steps of beautiful Palomino horses and Dan Post boots? Actually, Where I've been is, in some ways, a wildly reverent country album, from its opening sonic triad of whistles, pedal steel and acoustic guitar to its banjo-tinged, fiddle-soloed closing. Every song here hinges on the acoustic guitar, whether it's the rhythmic R&B loop heard on “Drink Don't Need No Mix” or the chunky, major strums of “Anabelle.” Shaboozey supposedly wrote an entire country album before Lady Wranglerhis chimerical 2018 major label debut that flopped in part because he couldn't decide how to put its component parts together. Where I've been it works so well because it starts clearly with the country and then rearranges it to suit its needs.
These needs are almost always about the next and best. That forward look is the true hip-hop element of these 12 songs. “East of the Massanutten” is a remarkable work. He references Confederate guerrilla kingpin John Mosby to justify his drive to head west in search of “a land full of dreams/With milk and gold and honey/Just waiting for me.” It's a song of liberation, like “Anabelle” and “Let It Burn,” belated goodbyes to lovers who won't stop ruining your life. “My Fault,” his gorgeous duet with Noah Cyrus, is a radical counterpart to Waxahatchee's “Right Back to It.” Instead of returning to the cozy stability of a relationship, both parties pursue it by breaking up to escape a cycle of “bar games” and blackouts. “Last of My Kind” initially offers a whiff of throwback nostalgia (and Paul Cauthen's Kid Rock-lite cameo doesn't help), but its unique brand of survival ultimately promises a kind of readiness for what's to come. It also reads, gloriously, like a pitch-black response to the dog-whistle paranoia of Hank Williams Jr.'s “A Country Boy Can Survive.”
Where I've been ends with “Finally Over,” a riff that conjures up the battles between persistence and loss, self-doubt and faith, heaven and hell. Is this album, he seems to be wondering, his exit from the music-industry, the last gasp of his label deals? This is solid ground for the country, where the paradox of rural folk seeking big-city fame has long created fascinating existential tension. It's amazing that he wondered aloud in this piece if he should sell his soul for “another viral moment” before “A Bar Song” soon made him very famous. But this, thankfully, is the work of someone who has more to offer than just a viral moment. Rooted in the past but based on the idea of finding a better future by whatever means necessary (running away, burning, drinking, fighting) Where I've been is not where I'm going epitomizes not a one-hit wonder, but a songwriter who has found both his way and his moment at the exact same moment.
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