Today is release day for the 12 tracks of MAYBE NEW MEXICO, my most personal album yet, the record I've always dreamed of making. It is deeply meaningful, with intense but restrained production. The songs reign. The lyrics are front and center. To me, every song is a little gem, the whole album a love letter to my listeners. Here are some of the reviews and comments so far! I'll add more as they roll in.
“Helene knows how to craft a song. She just as importantly knows how to deliver one. There’s a world of emotions on this new record wrapped up in tasteful production. Smartly, it stays out of the way of her heartfelt vocals. Go get it.” -Radney Foster
“Really good songwriters have the ability to spool out a tale in a patient and knowing way, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs so eventually you find your hands full of pieces that belong to a more involved and important story. Cronin trusts her listeners to assemble these fascinating and essential details, then reveals an unexpected turn that gets at an exact and precise emotion. ” -Doyle Turner, Adventures in Americana
"Beguiling, quietly emotional and gifted in both words and melody, it's already on my album of the year lists and I'll certainly be investing in discovering her previous releases. I urge you to do likewise." -Mike Davies, Fatea
“The more you listen to ‘Maybe New Mexico’ the clearer it becomes Cronin has an extraordinary talent for pulling out skein after skein of vivid, passionately felt imagery and predicaments and taking unusual, multiple perspectives on them.” -Alasdair Fotheringham, AmericanaUK
“With this new collection of material, Helene Cronin reaches fresh emotional depths, commanding more expressive personal moments than ever before—at times within the margins of a single verse. She demonstrates that she is one of today’s most insightful lyricists, telling stories with such an emotional intensity that you cry every tear, feel every heartbreak. This album feels like a gift: a package of intricate, mesmerising tracks, so intimate they sound like secrets. Virtuosic, elegant, and thoughtfully crafted, the entire record feels like a love letter, perhaps not aimed at you exactly, but at someone near you. She has an easy grace…” -Alan Cackett, alancackett.com
"Some of Helene’s songs add a mandolin with the urgency & earthy vocals similar to John Hiatt’s style. It’s how Nanci Griffith constructed her songs & went against the grain of mainstream country many times. Helene has that attraction; it radiates within her material. The songs are indeed personal, some intended to heal, unify, question, explain & at the same time maintain an entertaining value." -John Apice, Americana Highways
"Recorded at Sputnik Sound in Nashville where she worked alongside Grammy winning producer Mitch Dane…it really is a powerful and thought provoking body of work. Sonically a deceptively gentle album, Helene is not afraid to shy away from tackling hard hitting subjects, and has the uncanny knack of writing songs which are both personal and relatable. Throughout the 12 tracks she observes, reflects and questions in a way that put my brain in overdrive from first listen, indeed from the stunning opening track…" Lesley Hastings, Country Lowdown
"It’s always good to hear new music from Cronin as it is likely to be a collection of thoughtful songs, finely balanced playing and a vocal delivery that is imbued with life, love and loss - something that comes with time and telling observation." -Stephen Rapid, Lonesomehighway.com
