Frank Mastra - "Hangin' On"

Before I knew Frank Mastra had signed with Mercury Records. Before I learned he'd built an audience covering artists like Ray Charles, Leon Russell and Al Green. Before I knew he describes his own music as a modern take on Van Morrison, I had already started mentally flipping through my parents' record collection.

Then Spotify queued up Otis Redding. Of course it did.

“Hangin' On” feels wonderfully familiar because Mastra clearly knows the lineage he's stepping into. Piano, a little grit and a voice that sounds lived in give the song the warmth of something that's been sitting in a record collection for years. It doesn't chase nostalgia. Mastra simply understands why those old soul records still work.

The songwriting follows the same philosophy. “How can I hold you if I'm barely hangin' on?” That's the entire song in one devastating sentence.

Mastra turns the mirror on himself. He's questioning whether he's capable of giving another person the version of himself they deserve. Every verse circles the same painful realization: you can't ask somebody else to understand you when you're still trying to figure yourself out.

“How can you miss me if I've always been gone?”

That one hurts. Physical presence doesn't guarantee you've actually shown up for somebody, and Mastra manages to fit that entire distinction into nine words.

What impressed me most about Frank Mastra's debut is that, at just 21 years old, he isn't trying to reinvent soul music. He's introducing himself to it. And judging by “Hangin' On,” it sounds like soul music is more than happy to introduce itself right back.