Jan 28, 2022

Jordan Fletcher ‘True Stories’ EP Review

Country and folk blend together flawlessly when Jordan Fletcher’s voice and lyrics are thrown in the mix. The Nashville-based artist uses his talent to tell introspective stories from his own upbringing, adolescence, and present-day occurrences in his life. “If I’m singing it, it will be true about me. If you watched a childhood video of me on VHS, this is what you would see… I’m telling my story,” he states in a press release. His newest EP True Stories reflects that with just the title.

In the first track on the EP, “Firebird”, Fletcher sings heartfelt lyrics inspired by memories of his dad. With vivid and raw imagery, Fletcher truly brings us back into his childhood and early adolescence with a story about a car. The smooth guitar picks up into a light beat when he reminisces on these times with his father, traveling and fixing up his father’s old car that he still owns to this day. “I don’t feel you in that gravestone dirt / But I do when you’re on firebird” is Fletcher’s way of keeping his dad’s legacy alive.

“Firebird” is a sweet track that exhibits the importance of a bond between father and son, and how it lasts a lifetime. Fletcher explains one of his motivations to make music that’s rooted in his own father and now his son saying, “My dad died when I was eleven, and I’m still asking people to tell me stories about him. If something were to happen to me, I don’t want my son to have to look far to figure out his life, career, and relationships. I want him to turn on one of my songs and get that. That’s why I write the way I do.”

“Still Those Kids” celebrates his and his wife’s love story of 11 years, beginning as high school sweethearts, with a ballad-wrapped ode to her. It’s reminiscent of their past love, and the way it burns in the present day.

“No matter how far away we get / From those high school sweethearts that couldn’t wait to grow up / We’re still those kids.”

Fletcher explains “I Know You Are, But What Am I” as “one of those moments in a relationship where it feels like everything could go south.” The pain of the mood is felt from the moment it starts off with such a sweet, somber, melody. The song draws us in with vulnerability, and nostalgia, which is able to make any listener feel what Fletcher felt when writing and recording the track.

The final track, “Rather Be Broke” picks up the mood with a heartfelt sound and hopeful lyrics. The metaphors written by Ian Christina, Stephen Carey, and Jordan Fletcher himself, reflect how authentic and true his love for his wife really is. In those two minutes and 38 seconds, he confesses his love, and any listener can feel their heart being pieced back together by Fletcher’s sincerity.

“I’d rather be broke / Penny pinchin’ just to stay afloat / Instead of wishin’ for the stuff I don’t need / ‘Cause I got you and, baby girl, you got me / If I had to choose a big house with an ocean view / And bein’ rich or bein’ with you alone, holdin’ me close on that hand-me-down couch at home / I’d rather be broke, I’d rather be broke, yeah.”

What sets Jordan Fletcher apart from other artists in the genre is his authenticity and transparency, what you see is what you get. He lets us in on specific moments in his life, telling stories to his fans like he would his own family. “When you listen to me, I hope you think, ‘This dude went through that? That makes me feel better’. I want my music to be therapeutic. I want to give you a soundtrack to your life, by giving you the soundtrack to mine.”

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