Over the past 10 years, US country singer/songwriter Laura Cantrell has quietly produced a number of excellent albums that have received critical acclaim and along with her long-running ‘Radio Thrift Shop’ show; she has become one of the most respected independent artists on the scene.
That independence is on full show here as she combines her own country and folk traditions with her contemporary edge, and presents a classic sounding country album that celebrates the songs of Kitty Wells, a pioneering female artist in the world of Country music.
The title track is the sole self-penned song on the disc, and the remaining songs are taken from the Kitty Wells’ catalogue, and outside of the well-known ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’, Cantrell has chosen to showcase an album of songs that will be new to all be the most avid student of mid 20th Century American music.
It’s an approach that reaps benefits and showcases the social attitudes of the time as well as the quality of the tin-pan alley songwriters supplying artists’ with material.
This is so much more than a tribute album with Cantrell just going through the numbers – the songs are superbly chosen and sequenced, and the whole delivery and performances on show here demonstrate both Cantrell’s appreciation for the songs and the links they have to modern American music.
Appropriately recorded in Nashville, she has brought together a great band to present these songs in a classic style, but with enough modern sensibilities to appeal to a broad audience – if her aim was for a wide audience to discover the songs and heritage of Kitty Wells, then she has achieved that in quite some style.
Track listing
1 Kitty Wells Dresses
2 I Don't Claim To Be An Angel
3 Poison in Your Heart
4 One By One (with Chuck Mead)
5 I Can't Tell My Heart
6 It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
7 Making Believe
8 Amigo's Guitar
9 I Gave My Wedding Dress Away
10 Searching For A Soldier's Grave
review 20 April 2011
