CAROLINE HERRING
Golden Apples of the Sun
Signature Sounds Records***

For her fourth album, Caroline Herring veers off the alt.country highway and ventures down a folk sideroad. The result is a timeless, simple evocation of the power of the singer and the song. Accompanied only by producer/guitarist David Goodrich (when she is accompanied at all), the Mississippi-born Herring reveals a voice of old-fashioned purity and commitment against an uncluttered backdrop. There are disappointments, such as a dull acoustic cover of Cyndi Lauper's True Colours. But Herring's musical setting for Yeats's Song of the Wandering Aengus is haunting, while the strident recall of the self-penned The Dozens ("I'm just a white girl from a segregated town") is powered by righteous passion. Covers of See See Riderand Joni Mitchell's Cactus Treeare worthy, and Herring's own hymn-like closer, The Wild Rose, is both vulnerable and strong. www. carolineherring.com

Download tracks: The Wild Rose, The Dozens, Song of the Wandering Aengus