Dressy Bessy (Bonus DVD)
Dressy Bessy’s cute name--from a vintage doll--and association with theApples in Stereo, who share guitarist John Hill, might make indie fans expect a pretty twee experience from this third, self-titled full-length. The album’s one example of Apples-style bounciness, "Blink Twice," finds Tammy Ealom cheerily singing of finishing off a bottle of whiskey. Crunchy chords borrowed fromLiving After Midnightfor "This May Hurt (a little)" and the grinding rhythms of "Georgie Blue" make clear that singer Ealom’s vision is pop mostly in the sense of catchiness. If she were a Peanuts character, she’d be a more clued-in Peppermint Patty. With her sweetly raspy voice, Ealom illuminates small facets of girl life that often escape other songwriters: the friendship gone sour of "This May Hurt," the fraught relationship with Mom in "Girl, You Shout!" And her spare guitar parts lock in with Hill’s leads to push the tunes along and add moments that ultimately lift the record to another level.--Rickey Wright