The lilt in the voices of long-gone singers like Hulda Roberts and Aunt Molly Jackson-along with much, much more-seems part of Goodman's DNA. That likely accounts for why some of the deeper tendrils of her music appear extended from the gospel songs John and Alan Lomax recorded in Kentucky for the Library of Congress between 19, which can be heard online as The Lomax Kentucky Recordings. Goodman got her musical start singing in church three times a week. From the negative effects of corporate influence on local communities via the money pipeline to politics, to the challenges of revealing and addressing one's own sexual identity, to the belief that you can still love your neighbors, even though you might disagree with them, Old Time Feeling taps into the zeitgeist. And though these themes might be derived directly from her life in the South, they also manage to transcend such intimacy to resonate in ways that most Americans will find all-too-familiar. The songs “Space and Time," “Supertramp," “The Way I Talk," and “Burn Down the City" lay bare Goodman's personal tales of heartache, protest, estrangement, and reconciliation.
Her music is sparse and unvarnished, each song a musical anecdote about life in rural America that seeks to debunk familiar stereotypes with incisive social commentary. Raised in the 3.6-square-mile city of Hickman, Kentucky (population 2,395 in 2010), on the Mississippi River, in a strict, religious family, Goodman grew up in what many consider a quintessential Southern small town. That philosophy imbues the songs on her Jim James-produced debut album, Old Time Feeling, with an empathetic perspective that manages to both celebrate and challenge many of the social and economic values commonly associated with her rural, small-town upbringing. I try to represent my worldview, and the people in it, as respectfully and honestly as possible." “That's just the way I choose to go about my music. “I really don't think I could find any joy in not being honest with people," declares S.G. “But that's not the story I feel needs to be told." Photo by Meredith Truax
“I could easily portray things in a way that's disrespectful to my community," she explains. Goodman is very much a product of the modern, rural American South.
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