While The FBR is now a sextet that includes guitarist Evan Opitz, keyboardist Brandon Mordecai, bassist C.J. Singer and former Goo Goo Dolls drummer Mike Malinin, it started with McConaha and Hunter performing as a duo. They met at an open-mike night in 2014 at what was then known as Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant in Leipers Fork, a small rural community 30 minutes southwest of Nashville popular with songwriters and musicians. It was during a period of time when McConaha had discovered the music of Leonard Cohen, who had lived in Leipers Fork himself in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
The group takes its name from another song by Cohen, “Famous Blue Raincoat,” which he recorded in Nashville in September 1970, and that is what the duo began calling themselves after Cohen passed before later shortening it to “The FBR.”
One might expect a group named after a Leonard Cohen song to be a folk act or maybe folk-rock, but that’s not the case with The FBR. Decades ago, they would have been considered Southern rock, and that’s still not a bad description of their music because it’s essentially gospel-flavored blues rock with a little boogie on the side. The FBR may work some classic musical territory, but that’s not to suggest they’re retro. The music on Ghost has a timeless and authentic quality that transcends its roots and gives it a powerful relevance in the postmodern musical landscape.
At the heart of The FBR’s sound is McConaha’s enchanting and soulful voice, which can go from a whisper to a roar. In what seems like a contradiction, her voice is both familiar and different. But despite her obvious vocal gifts, she didn’t move to Nashville to be a singer.
McConaha also counts Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, Lucinda Williams, Adele and Amy Winehouse among other vocalists who influenced her. Some have compared McConaha to Maria Muldaur of “Midnight at the Oasis” fame, and their voices do have a similar flowing and sensual quality. On Ghost, the power and allure of her voice is on full display.
Work on the album began in 2019 with co-producer Matt Sepanic, and those sessions, which featured backing from studio musicians, yielded three songs — “Rain On,” “Still On The Run” and the album opener and first single, “Before I Drown.” Six other songs, including the next two singles — “Empty Room” and a mashup of a pair of traditional numbers “Hurricane”/“House of the Rising Sun,” which has become a showstopper in their live performances — were recorded with their band in June 2022. “Skies of Donegal Blue,” which features just McConaha and Hunter and provides a glimpse into what they sounded like as a duo, was cut in California in spring 2023 with producer Jim Scott, who also mixed the album.
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