published: 24 /
8 /
2011
Label:
Amy McCarley
Format: CD
Sparse, but impressive country bluegrass on debut album from Alabama-based singer-songwriter, Amy McCarley
Review
Amy McCarley is an Alabama singer-songwriter heavily influenced by performers such as Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch and Kate Campbell.
On her 11-track debut, she gives a barebones tour through 10 originals and a cover of Welch’s ‘Look at Miss Ohio’.
Though it’s a stripped-down affair, with the focus on McCarley’s singing and acoustic guitar, there are a few extra flourishes. The harmonica on ‘Long Way Home’ and single-note electric lead on ‘Midnight Gown’ are both nice touches, although on some of the tunes, the musical backing is a bit too basic. The piano on ‘What I Was Ordering’ is so simplistic it might have been better to go without.
For the most part the songs are expressions of personal feeling, reflections on love, hope and dreams told in McCarley’s appropriately careworn voice.
McCarley’s first album is definitely a cut above most self-recorded singer-songwriter debuts, and should provide some musical nourishment to fans of female country bluegrass singers.
Track Listing:-
1
Long Way Home
2
Midnight Gown
3
Everything Changed
4
Every Which Way
5
Faster Than Truth
6
What I Was Ordering
7
How Will I Know
8
Wake Up
9
Hollywood
10
Look At Miss Ohio
11
Stay