Rene Russell and The Bottom End – Too Late (2021)
South Carolina musicians Rene Russell and The Bottom End inspire people with their latest bluesy rhythmic track, ‘Too Late’. The track exudes a carefree yet purposeful attitude to life reminding all ears listening to look back and look to the future, to look inward and take stock of all their choices as well as the many things they have done, regret and have not yet achieved. The track feels like an ode to forgiving and empowering oneself and is accompanied throughout by the light strings of a fiddle. Russell’s voice flows over the track like the wind, sometimes light and airy and at other times guttural with big strong gusts of feeling. ‘Too Late’ was written in the mountains of North Carolina while Russell was quarantined, along with the rest of the singer-songwriter’s debut record, Dream The World Anew – a deeply personal and introspective account of the world as Russell sees it.
The song radiates bluegrass charm as it hollers out the message that every person has the power to change their own circumstances and make the world a better place to live in. It is filled with soul-searching and contemplation, warning listeners at first that “it’ll be too late for us if we don’t listen, too late for us if we close our eyes, too late for us if can’t give in, it’s gonna be too late for us if we don’t try”. All the while, steadfast, Russell plays her Taylor 12-string guitar in a distinctive percussive claw-hammer style endlessly finger-picking to the unshakeable rhythms of Chris Blackwell on drums and Jamie Lupini on bass. She speaks to each of us “marching to a different drummer” and states triumphantly, “it’s only too late if you never look back and change”.
Rene Russell and The Bottom End deliver something joyous with ‘Too Late’ filled with heart and hope. It’s a prosperous song that can be mined over and over again for lyrical nuggets of wisdom. It is a song that celebrates every life lived as perfect imperfection.
Find out more about Rene Russell and The Bottom End on their website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
