Joan Osborne: Pretty Little Stranger. Two thumbs way up!
Joan Osborne: Songs Of Bob Dylan. Sorry JO, don’t care for it. Yet. I’ll give it a few more spins.
Lee Ann Womack: The Lonely, The Lonesome & The Gone. Lee described it’s Genesis as her wanting to make an album having a rural, back-to-her Texas roots quality to it. So I gave her the benefit of my doubt, and bought a copy. My doubts were confirmed; over-produced, showbizzy slick, very non-rural. It’s what an Americana-style songwriter I worked with in the 90’s (Steve Tagliere, himself now back in Texas) calls Housewife Country.
Lucinda Williams: Her entire catalog. One of the couple of greatest living artists, she’s the real deal. I can’t believe how many songs she’s written in the past 30 years, nor what a great singer she has grown into. Yes, I hear what some others have complained of in her singing---the inarticulate, slurred delivery. To me, she sometimes kind of sounds like her tongue is maybe slightly swollen. She delivers the lyrics in a rather laconic, very relaxed manner. I dig it! But beyond that, she sings them with an honest, heartfelt quality, like she has lived every word. I’m absolutely in awe of her talent.
