In these torrid times a new year can indeed feel like a carnival of hopes. But North Carolina singer-songwriter Jane Kramer mixes sweet good feeling with bitter regret in this charming collection of string band Americana and tear-shaped memory. "I'm not great at making stuff up so I sing what I lived and what I know, without any sugar or fluff," she says. That kind of candour makes this 11-track album sound dry. It's not. A bright energy infuses the music, from the flying fiddle-fuelled western swing opener Half Way Gone, and though her tales have their share of colourful downsides, Kramer doesn't languish in her blues. The playing features tasteful string band flourishes, not least that of fiddle player Nicky Sanders, but it is Kramer's songs and her sensitive reading of them that makes this such a pleasure.

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