With so many growing political narratives in the folk genre, as it was generations ago, a hint of personable poeticisms can go a lot further than one might expect. Enter Sean Della Croce, whose new single “Rebecca Henry” is getting a lot of traction in the underground at the moment, and it’s largely because of the soul invested within the lyrics Croce sings so plainly to her audience. Where it’s been trendy for a lot of players to feed into a storyline set by their peers lately, this is a singer/songwriter with something more intimate to say.
There’s some punch to this hook, but it’s not being presented to us in such a fashion where the instrumentation feels overstated bedside the vocal. Although she isn’t pushing these lyrics with a lot of intensity, Croce has a dynamic lead at the microphone that doesn’t compromise her integrity when it comes to forming an emotional foundation here; truth be told, she has very little in common with those in pop who would need to rely on a lot of fireworks behind them to make a point directly to the listener. It’s partly training but mostly intuition, which makes all the difference in the world here.
You can tell that Croce has been craving a taste of the spotlight for most of her life just in the way she goes after the melodies in “Rebecca Henry,” and if she’s as potent as she is in this setting one really has to wonder what she could do in a live performance where there’s nothing to get in her way. She doesn’t have the unguarded endearingness of a more reserved singer/songwriter, but that’s part of her charisma – while some might have to be innocent to say something larger than life, she wears battle scars on her sleeve with these verses and the tone through which she delivers them.
I can’t speak for any other critics in the game at the moment, but right now I think there’s good reason to believe in the buzz around Sean Della Croce and “Rebecca Henry,” especially when looking at a lot of the lackluster players who have been trying to chase after the Americana revival movement for the better part of the last two years. Chamber pop and folk-rock find some common ground in this performance, and I’m really intrigued at where it’s going to take this artist as she continues developing her signature sound.
