Rob’s Album Of The Week: Sammy Brue’s Crash Test Kid

It’s a rarity when people turn out to be well beyond their years when it comes to a craft. There’s obviously a prodigal quality that’s present but a good way of cancelling out the pretentiousness that might come along is to look at the talent in a basic light. Music is no stranger to this, once in a while a kid will rise up with a way of creating tunes that rival musicians twice his age. Ogden, Utah’s Sammy Brue has a knack for pulling this off and he’s only 18. His second full-length album, Crash Test Kid, that was released on June 12 via New West Records shows a bit of maturity setting in and a stunning versatility in Brue’s songwriting.

One thing I love about this album is how you can’t classify it and put it in a box. It’s not folk, it’s not indie rock and it’s surely not country, but it’s a mix of the three that has Brue finding his own artistic identity. There are some energetic rockers and a couple emotional ballads. Nothing sounds the same and you can’t compare the music to a singular artist. One of the best traits a musician can have is to not sound like they’re ripping someone off and Brue achieves that in excellent fashion.

We’re roughly around 100 days since COVID-19 shut everything down back in March, and while things are slowly returning to normal there is still so much uncertainty. Some states even took a few…