Catie Curtis
Boston folkie Catie Curtis is backed by an all-star roots-rock band (ex-Springsteen keyboardist Roy Bittan, ex-Mellencamp drummer Kenny Aronoff, ex-Gabriel bassist Tony Levin) on her album "Catie Curtis," and her songwriting has improved enough to live up to the challenge. Her lyrics boast a new level of sharply observed detail, and her verses build to truly memorable choruses. When she sings about an adolescent lesbian affair on "I Don't Cry Anymore," the specificity of lines such as "I kept your picture in my pocket though you were always with me" will connect with anyone's doomed teenage romance. Another song describes a fading New England mill town, but it transcends that cliché to evoke time passing inexorably like a "River Winding" through the darkness.--Geoffrey Himes