The latest releases reviewed.
GRETCHEN PETERS Burnt Toast & Offerings Curb ***
This is an album of middle-age regret, broken relationships and faded dreams wrapped in a classy production mostly smothered in mood and atmosphere. Gretchen Peters is a good songwriter in the smart and sensitive country-pop vein, as befits a New Yorker now living in Nashville. She was a late starter, but her songs have been covered by many prominent acts. She is bright, articulate and insightful, reflecting broadly on the withering of hope and expectation and its replacement with routine emotions (Summer People, Ghosts, Breakfast at Our House). And the songs are honest and good, though generally they stop short of being exceptional. Peters's performance and that of her band impressively mixes the sassy and the subtle. www.gretchenpeters.com Joe Breen
Download tracks: Summer People, England Blues, Breakfast at Our House
LISA KNAPP Wild and Undaunted Ear to the Ground ***
It's as if Beth Orton, Sinéad O'Connor and Björk have engaged in a deliciously illicit, hormonally imbalanced menage a trois: debutante Londoner Lisa Knapp's voice is a whisper and sigh that loiters on back roads and bothareens, far from the main drag. With hammered dulcimer, fiddle, autoharp and banjo adding colour to her reedy, fragile vocals, Wild and Undaunted might promise a tad more than it delivers in both spontaneity and backbone, but it's still a calling card that stands well apart from the crowd. Starting on safe ground with the over-sampled Blacksmith, Knapp gradually carves her own niche with Ride Along, all dissonant, achy fiddles, and Beggar Beggar, with its stripped-down, untutored and air-bright tale of lost innocence. Surely this is Knapp's first and not last tape? www.lisaknapp.co.uk Siobhan Long
Download tracks: Ride Along, There U R
PATTY GRIFFIN Children Running Through ATO records ****
Is Patty Griffin the best-kept secret in American roots/folk music? If so (and there is strong evidence in its favour), then no blame should attach to Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle or Dixie Chicks, all of whom have championed Griffin's cause at one time or another. Emmylou is back again for a stirring duet on Trapeze, one of 12 tracks on this typically engrossing album. Griffin takes no easy options, and her songs may require time and patience to fully appreciate. But a sure-footed intensity courses through them, be they striking, deeply personal ballads, passionate soulful gospel, or ribald rockabilly kissoffs. And as sensitive a writer as she is, Griffin is an even better singer: she lives the song, stepping inside its frame to convey the emotion from the inside out. Her last studio album, Impossible Dream, still resonates years after release, and I've a strong suspicion this will do likewise. www.pattygriffin.com Joe Breen
Download tracks: Stay on the Bus, Getting Ready, Up to the Mountain
