Album Review – Dee White’s “Heart Talkin’”

Traditional Country (#510) and Country Folk (#575) on the Country DDS. Everywhere you turn these days, everyone and everything is trying to agitate you, get your dander up, trigger you with dog whistles, because the quickest way to your undivided attention in the attention economy is unadulterated rage. Blaming others for problems is what makes the world go ’round, until it starts spinning so fast, life passes you by like a blink, and you lose yourself in the melee of everyday conflicts. It’s doesn’t take guts and character to blurt out whatever emanates from your bowels like a bile-filled belch. What takes courage is to try and slow everything down, to listen to others, to see the humanity in someone else, and to share or partake in wise counsel. Not since the time of Don Williams and Tom T. Hall has someone accomplished this exercise so well through the medium of country music as Slapout, Alabama-native Dee White. White’s 2025 album Heart Talkin’ is like a cool drink of water on an August afternoon. It’s like a swing on the back porch with someone you love, a cuddle on the couch with a newly-acquired puppy, reading nursery rhymes to a child as their eyes slowly close, and a close waltz on a good wooden floor. Dee White had us all talkin’ in 2019 when he released his debut record Southern Gentleman, produced by Dan Auerbach for Warner Music Nashville. As delightful as it was, it’s Heart Talkin’ where you feel like you get to know the real Dee White, which is independent, out of the spotlight and the realm of high expectation, and being produced by the Hall of Famer Tony Brown, known for putting the spit polish on some of the greatest country records ever.

Writing or co-writing all of the album’s tracks, Dee White enacts a wholesale recalibration of life through these 11 songs for the attentive listener, but that’s not all you get. The album is bookended by a couple of punchy and entertaining songs about heartbreak (“Up The Creek Again” and “Wagon Girl”). “Million Miles” co-written with William Beckmann and Ben Chapman finds a killer half-time groove in the chorus.But as fun and infectious as these songs are, it’s the tracks like “Little Things,” “Heart Talkin’,” and “Tools Over Toys” where Dee White does what he does best, which is calm the nerves, complimented by his vocal tone that has a soothing aspect to it perfect for diffusing tension, and resetting perspectives on the most important things in life. And even though this album is here to take the edge off, Dee White doesn’t shy away from asserting certain things or taking strong positions, like the nature of hypocrisy in the song “All Day Singin’” recorded previously by co-writer Kendell Marvel, which is complimented by the cautionary tale of the next song “Snake.” Without the aid of a big label or hot producer behind him, Heart Talkin’ didn’t receive the attention it deserved when released in the early summer. But as 2025 has continued on, the album has distinguished itself as one of the year’s best, and maybe one of the year’s most important. As the world feels like it’s unraveling and spinning out of control, a attentive spin through Heart Talkin’ helps slow everything down, and remind you to savor the important moments in life, however fleeting they might be. 8.3/10 – – – – – – – –Download/stream Heart Talkin’

Source: savingcountrymusic.com