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MARTHA SCANLAN The west was burning Sugar Hill Records ****

With a name like that, you'd imagine that there's a lot of green running through her bloodline, but there is no evidence of it on this impressive debut. Instead, Martha Scanlon offers an intriguing new voice of colourful fragility that shuffles between the back porches of rustic country, a steel guitar poignantly heightening the mood of broken hearts and wasted nights, her pure voice seeking solace from a merciful Almighty in the white Gospel tradition a la Buddy and Julie Miller. And, like that redoubtable duo, she mixes in a healthy dose of hardcore rock'n'roll (The Band's Levon Helm sits in on drums), as if the joyous sinning makes sense of the pious saints. Most of the 11 tracks are Scanlan's own, and particular standouts include the title track, the thumping Get Right Church and the sensitive Up on the Divide. www.marthascanlon.com Joe Breen