Posted on: January 2, 2023 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Music snobs harbor the misguided idea that modern country music, Nashville in particular, produces dreck the way rabbits birth offspring. Doom and shallow diving await any listeners wading through the slush pile of any modern music as creative pools in many genres are drier than ever before. Country music, as we know it today, isn’t an inherently vacuous vehicle for aspiring singers and musicians. Profiteers abound wherever you look willing to make a buck off marketable sounds, but there are many singers, musicians, and songwriters still willing to balance their yearning for fame and big paydays with a genuine love for song.

URL: https://www.sarahdiamondmusic.com/

Sarah Diamond and the Soul Miners claim a real love for country music. The Florida based unit, however, cozies up to hard-hitting country rock rather than pedal steel guitars and cowboy hats. Diamond and her bandmates are back with their second single entitled “Doin’ Whatcha Doin” and it is a decisive break with the band’s first. “I Got Away” played their serious hand first and the band’s musical tale of a woman leaving a toxic relationship behind garnered considerable notice for Diamond and the band.

The second single will do so for very different reasons. “Doin’ Whatcha Doin’” is a fun and less than serious song tackling the topic of the dancing around each other people do before deciding to become physically intimate for the first time. It’s a subject matter that, in one guise or another, is as old as popular music itself. Diamond’s singing isn’t bashful about the song’s subject matter and the phrasing is fun without ever sounding too overt. She’s far too smart of a singer for that.

She has a sharp ear, as well, for how to make a song’s strengths work in her favor. It’s a pleasure hearing her master the build to each chorus and when she hits that moment, you hear whatever remaining chains snap and nothing holds her back. Diamond reaches full flight during this song and, when she does, it immeasurably adds to the overall fun.

The song’s instrumental attack is superb. It has on-point guitar playing and even a solo, the latter emphasizing the focus guitarists JP Mooningham and Dave Arazmo bring to their respective performances. Some may question if a guitar solo is even needed during this song, but it serves a purpose and isn’t empty ornamentation. It doesn’t weigh down the track in any way.

Everything is on the same page here. There isn’t any disconnect between the arrangement, vocals, and content. Roger Nichols’ production accentuates Diamond’s strengths as well as the bands and the balanced approach he adopts for the instrumentation helps make “Doin’ Whatcha Doin’” all the more effective for listeners. Sarah Diamond and the Soul Miners’ sophomore single packs enough of a wallop that longtime fans will keep coming back for more while newcomers will experience a minor come to Jesus moment hearing the band’s latest single. It’s the sort of no-nonsense country rock that we don’t hear much of anymore. 

Kim Muncie

Leave a Comment