Songs From Take-Off to Landing
What's a modern Mississippi folk chanteuse to do? After being accused in some quarters of compromising her largely acoustic-based music for a major-label deal (1997'sEighteen over Me), then ultimately falling victim to end-of-the-decade roster contractions, Garrison Starr returns after a four-year layoff to stubbornly argue that some of those previous aesthetic choices weren't mere affectations--or a deal with the devil. Sharing production chores with engineer Chris Fuhrman, Starr pushes her dry, expressive voice bravely to the front of a jangly, more spaciously dynamic musical mix. Having survived some hard career knocks and slouching toward 30 years old in a business seemingly drunk on hormonal teen-pop, there's now a welcome bittersweet edge to her songs, especially in the stripped-down, acoustic charms of songs like the vibrant "Serves Me Right" and "Silent Night," the latter enhanced by dreamy guitar atmospherics and the harmonies ofMary Chapin Carpenter. While it's perhaps too easy to read biz-savvy double-entendre into songs like "Star Power" and "Knucklehead," the dramatic "Gardenia" and country-tinged "Hardest Part of Living" only argue that this Starr is still ascending.--Jerry McCulley