Todd Mack started playing classical music at eight, picked up the guitar a few years later, and began writing almost immediately. His professional career kicked off in 1989 with a self-titled debut, followed by a decade of full-time touring and six more releases through 2011. Then came a 14-year gap. “I’m Gonna Love You No Matter What” marks his return with 11 story-driven originals featuring musicians from around the country, including Krishna Guthrie (Woody Guthrie’s great-grandson) on guitar, Pamela Lynn Cohen on fiddle, and American Idol semi-finalist Katherine Winston.
Recorded and mixed with Rob Vermeulen at Robbo Music in Morro Bay, CA, the album layers guitars, keys, fiddle, and mandolin into a rootsy Americana tapestry that highlights Mack’s gritty sound and lyrically focused writing. After more than a decade away, this is Mack reminding us what he does best.
“Angel Above” is a heartfelt acoustic ballad with a gut-wrenching fiddle performance highlighting the nostalgia and the remembrance of those who moved on from this life before us. The performances respect the weight and drama of the subject matter, playing to the themes, not above them.
“On a Line” follows as a lyrically driven folk song, examining the cognitive dissonance and peculiarities of modern life. The standout lyric, “Everybody is selling something and everyone is for sale,” captures the broad social commentary Todd Mack aims to convey.
“Dreams” slows the dynamics appropriately, starting out with a Hendrixian guitar line and slowly taking us on this half-time groove, discussing uncertainty and the humanity of dreams, and how we should follow them and hold on to them and never let go. Those are why we are here.
“No More (feat. Sadie Jasper)” is a duet about trust, love, and being there for the ones we love when they need us. The music is very simple and makes the perfect bed for singing along in a big venue with a bunch of people, as everyone just begins to weep.
“Ain’t Enough” starts dramatically with a delicate piano accompaniment to the softest performance from Todd Mack so far on the record. Thematically, as the title implies, it speaks to feeling like your love just wasn’t enough. It’s an emotion that we all experience at some point, and honest songs like this help us move forward.
“River Carry Me” is a song about longing for someone and missing home. The instrumental arrangement here leans into that yearning, with the fiddle and acoustic guitar creating space for the vocals to stretch out. It’s one of those songs that sounds like it could’ve been written a hundred years ago or yesterday, and that timelessness is what makes it stick.
“The Light Within” marks a stylistic switch in the record. Going for a more straightforward blues rock style with layers of mandolin and slide guitar, propelling us forward with that tom groove. The lyrics have biblical themes about how the light of god shines within, and the bridge even features some kind of radio voice reciting a prayer. A welcome change in vibe that will carry on to the next songs.
“Undone” is another of the more lyrically driven songs on the record, where the music is more tame with fewer melodic lines and motifs to give the vocals more space to tell the story. “Everything’s broken…Everything’s wasted, yeah, nothing is no good anymore.” There’s almost nothing more straightforward than this. The lyrics lay it bare, no metaphors or anything, just a man being undone.
“Reckless” is the heaviest song on the record, with a rhythm section that will make you stomp and want to get up and fight. There is an organ sound on the keyboard, tying the whole thing together as the lyrics rile you up, “There is no salvation from above.” This is the kind of cynicism and darkness this song delivers.
“If I” takes us back to ballad land with some somber introspection, with a hint of regret. The sense of melody here is impeccable, with the intermittent musical breaks doing so much of the heavy lifting to make this song work as well as it does. The cherry on top is the album’s most melodic guitar solo to close it out.
Speaking of closing it out, we are almost at the finish line with this wholesome song: “You Are There”. Musically, it’s more like a pop country song. Lyrically, it’s such a bright song. It speaks of the power of loving someone so much that the mere thought of them during a bad day can uplift you. It’s such a great song to end an album with.
“I’m Gonna Love You No Matter What” works because Todd Mack didn’t try to reinvent himself after 14 years away. This is the same rootsy Americana songwriter who spent a decade touring in the 90s, just with more life lived and more stories to tell. The album moves between heartache and hope without feeling scattered, and the collection of musicians Mack assembled brings depth to every track without overplaying. For a comeback record, it doesn’t feel like someone trying to prove anything. It’s just solid, honest songwriting from someone who never stopped being a songwriter, even during the long gap between releases.