Edgar Loudermilk has one mission this summer, and it’s to make listeners feel the bluegrass vibes of his new single “My Picasso,” currently out everywhere that quality independent music is sold and streamed. Right from the get-go, there isn’t anything bigger or sexier in this song than its unstoppable strings, which circle the lead vocal from Loudermilk like a shark getting ready to close in for the kill.
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The lyrics here frame the melodic substance of the instrumentation – not the other way around – but don’t dismiss their narrative as being pointless or on the back burner to the sonic intensity of the band. “My Picasso” is a tribute to the bluegrass of old packaged with the physical punch of a more modern track, and though its aesthetics are colorful and hard to pin down unless you nitpick at the influences, this track is one that you’ll have a hard time putting down once you’ve picked it up for the first time. Labeling a performance that takes as much from the classic as it does something a bit more ambitious on both fronts is, as far as I’m concerned, futile; this is a song that anybody who can relate to a sensuous harmony should be putting on full-blast this September.
There’s so much kick to this beat, and because the track is mixed like a country song rather than something as instrumentally heavy as bluegrass tends to be, there’s nowhere for us to hide from the constant thrusting it imparts to the melodic elements in the music. Producers didn’t need to put any extra emphasis on the vocal component in “My Picasso,” mostly because Edgar Loudermilk is already putting a heck of a lot of emotion and push into his verses here. The chemistry between our leading man and his supporting tempo is something worth writing home about all by itself, but there’s never a moment in which we’re wondering who the real star of this show is. Loudermilk owns the spotlight like he was born to live in its bright glow in this track, and although there are other examples of his swaggering demeanor in his current discography, this might be my favorite song bearing his moniker so far.
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2023 has been a mixed bag of hits and misses for critics and fans who keep an especially close eye on the indie beat, but as I see it, Edgar Loudermilk’s new single is as close to gold content as we’re going to get before the autumn comes rolling around. “My Picasso” definitely makes me want to hear him collaborate with other artists on his level, and if he’s able to make a successful crossover release with another singer or instrumentalist who can construct hooks as flawlessly as he can, I think the mainstream side of the critic’s community is going to start lauding his work as much as any of us in the underground have this year. I’m excited to see what the future holds for this singer/songwriter, and after you hear “My Picasso,” I think you will be too.
Gwen Waggoner
