Nina Jo Smith -- Out of the Darkness

There is no shortage to Nina Jo Smith’s Out of the Darkness. Perhaps that’s because it’s Smith’s second studio album, and first in almost a decade. The album seeks to bottle up the difficult times in the last ten years — the turbulence of the Trump administration, the trials of lockdown, and Smith’s personal tragedies — and teach us how to prevail. Smith herself has had to re-calibrate her singing after battling with COVID-19, lending further credence to her message of perseverance.

Smith populates Darkness with an unforgettable cast of characters, including her hero John Prine. “John Prine Last Night” immortalizes the legend in a story he would have approved of, in which the songwriter plays one more show in the spirit realm before moving on. There are stories of runaways, misfits, ghosts, and cities of out of time. The new rasp in Smith’s voice grounds these songs in an earthy realness.

There are also thoughtful spoken word elements here: “Justice Sestina” interrogates the historical and human forces that led to a racially charged confrontation in Central Park in 2020. While Smith brilliantly invokes the systemic forces that would lead a white woman to lose her mind when asked to put her dog on its leash, there is also the human element of fear. Smith’s lilting reading gives this moment in time a quiet dignity, rather than fodder for rage clicks.

Out of the Darkness has a timeless feeling, with heavy inspiration from ’60s and ’70s folk music. Smith provides a contemporary sensibility, though: there aren’t necessarily good guys or bad guys anymore — but there are certainly a lot of people who are injured by the system we have. Like the great folk singers whose path she walks in, Smith asks us to imagine how things could be if we all had a chance to heal.

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