New Album: Kristian Bush Stays Sunny on ‘Southern Gravity’

Though Sugarland’s Kristian Bush has had his share of hardship of late, as he shared with Rolling Stone in a recent interview, his debut solo album, Southern Gravity, is not the musical offering of a man stuck in weathering the lows.

Instead, the 12-song LP radiates positive energy, melding the pop-country sound Bush is known for with a spirit that’s triumph is that much greater because it’s hard-won. “One of the reasons why I thought it was important to talk about this story for the first time, was so that people understand what this album is,” Bush tells RS. “It’s one thing to listen to it and hear it as sunshine. It’s another thing to listen to it and hear it as sunshine into a cave.”

Not that the walls of the cave don’t show on Southern Gravity. “Feeling Fine California,” for instance, feels at face like a sunny serenade to the sunshine state, but searches for solace in its summery streets. “I’m doing fine in California / I’m feeling fine right here in L.A.,” Bush sings. “I love the sunshine and the way it warms ya / people treat me so good here / treat me so good here that I just might stay.” It’s not just a preference for an easy life, it hints at an inability to return to a place he needs – the pull in Tennessee’s “Southern Gravity.”

“There was once a man from Tennessee who was so heartbroken, he knew in his bones the only thing he could do to forget her was to go west, to drive until he ran out of road on the golden coast of California. So he drove. Here he sits at the corner of that bar on the beach in L.A., convincing himself that he is okay. Now hit play,” reads the quote from Bush introducing the song in the album’s liner notes.

The album’s closer, “House On A Beach,” is another such song. Written with artist Canaan Smith, the lyrics alone depict beach house perfection, an ode to an idyllic home and a family to share it with. And while it shares the pop sensibilities of the rest of the record, it’s perhaps the most somber of the songs, where the undercurrent of needs unmet and challenges still challenging finds its way to a melancholic shore. In another life, this song could’ve been a simple snapshot of a future, but for Bush, it’s a simultaneous admission of a continued struggle and an understanding of a path to a solaced future.

It’s a future, that for Bush, is growing brighter, whether it’s the focus on what’s important with the infectious single “Trailer Hitch” or the feel-good energy of “Make Another Memory.” Southern Gravity is a solid soundtrack to spring’s arrival, with little moments of complex self-awareness that make it both radio-friendly and engaging on deeper listens.

Track listing for Southern Gravity, produced by Bush and Tom Tapley, exec. produced by Byron Gallimore:

1. Make Another Memory (Kristian Bush / Jeff Cohen / Rodney Clawson)
2. Light Me Up (Bush / Jesse Rice)
3. Trailer Hitch (Bush / Brandon Bush / Tim Owens)
4. Souther Gravity (Bush / Scooter Carusoe)
5. Flip Flops (Bush / Jeff Cohen / Paul Overstreet)
6. Giving It Up (Bush / Cohen / Tom Douglas)
7. Feeling Fine California (Bush / Cohen / Overstreet)
8. Waiting On An Angel (Bush / Cohen / Bob DiPiero)
9. Wal Tall (Bush / Cohen / Nathaniel “Bo” Rinehart / William “Bear” Rinehart)
10. Sending You A Sunset (Bush / Owens)
11. Sweet Love (Bush / Sherrie Austin / Phil Barton / Cohen)
12. House On A Beach (Bush / Canaan Smith)