South Front Street brings together a career-spanning collection of Grayson Capps songs that have been curated and re-tuned by GRAMMY award winner Trina Shoemaker, a producer and engineer who’s worked with Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile, The Secret Sisters, Tanya Tucker, American Aquarium… And she just happens to be Grayson’s wife and biggest fan! More than just a greatest hits, the retrospective’s narrative is a personal one for Shoemaker. For the album’s liner notes, she reveals, “[South Front Street] is a collection of songs that paint a picture of our life together and reveals a world from the uniquely enchanted, poetic, and tormented perspective of Grayson Capps.” Rather than simply placing the songs in chronological order of release, Trina tells their story the way she hears it. Longtime admirers of Grayson’s music need not worry about liberties taken with Capps work or that his signature Gulf Coast grit is in any danger of disappearing. Some tracks enjoy nearly imperceptible adjustments more akin to a remaster than remix– pans, fades, isolation– while slightly more radical clean-ups on earlier cuts like Stavin’ Chains’ “Get Back Up” put you in the room alongside Capps, revealing the singer-songwriter’s foot taps and chair creaks. For new fans, South Front Street is an excellent way to dive into the catalog of a songwriter who infuses every word and every chord with unadulterated humanity while those who have followed Capps’ 20+ career should relish reconnecting with old friends. In an interview with Sound and Soul in 2018, Grayson said of Trina, “She goes in, gets the best thing of each song, and it’s of the moment. I see her do this with every artist… And for people to listen to it, it makes it palatable to listen to over and over again ’cause so much love and work went into each one. Each time you hear ’em as a listener, you’re gonna probably hear somethin’ different, some level of labor and love.”
