The Radio Thrift
\nShop<\/a>,” which is heard on the free form radio station, WFMU-FM.
\nShe plays a lot of traditional country on her show, although she
\nhas been known to play pop, blues, jazz, folk, and any kind of
\nmusic that strikes her fancy.<\/p>\n\nNot The Tremblin’ Kind<\/i> is not as eclectic as that. Cantrell
\nstays pretty much in country territory, but she does show her love
\nfor the different sides of the music, and she is not afraid to
\nbring pop songs into the country fold. For example, listen to her
\ninterpretation of the title song, which was written by fellow New
\nYork based songwriter George Usher. In Usher’s hands, the song
\nsounds like “Mr. Tambourine Man”-era Byrds. However, Cantrell, with
\nher Tennessee warble (she sings like a cross between Lucinda
\nWilliams and Iris DeMent), turns the song into pure country
\ngold.<\/p>\n
The rest of the CD alternates between hardcore country, and the
\nlighter variety that is sometimes called Americana. Her
\nAmericana-oriented songs are solid: “Little Bit Of You”, “Pile Of
\nWoe” and “Two Seconds” are filled with soaring melodies, thoughful
\nlyrics, and tasteful accompaniment on the guitar and mandolin.<\/p>\n
However,
\nNot The Tremblin’ Kind<\/i> is at its best when the tunes are
\nmore hardcore country. Cantrell wrote four of the twelve songs on
\nthe CD, and all of them are winners. The standouts are “Queen Of
\nThe Coast”, which reminds me that country songs are best when they
\ntell poignant stories, and “Churches On The Interstate”, which has
\nclassic country written all over it, but is coming from a different
\nperspective (let’s just say that the Bible Belt would not be all
\nthat thrilled with the message).<\/p>\n
But the most traditional country song on the CD is “The Whiskey
\nMakes You Sweeter”, written by singer\/songwriter Amy Allison. The
\nsong is so drenched in twang, that it makes current country stars
\nlike Faith Hill sound like Christina Aguilera in comparison. This
\nsong also reminds me of another of country’s strengths: the crying
\nin your beer song.<\/p>\n
The only missteps are when
\nNot The Tremblin’ Kind<\/i> gets a little too eclectic. Cantrell
\ndoesn’t sound terribly comfortable doing the trucker song “Big
\nWheel”. And the most overtly pop song on the CD, “Do You Ever Think
\nOf Me”, is a pleasant enough ditty, but it sounds trite coming
\nright after “The Whiskey Makes You Sweeter”.<\/p>\n
Overall,
\nNot The Tremblin’ Kind<\/i> is a strong debut for Cantrell. She
\nknows a good song when she hears one (or writes one), but the CD
\ncomes across like she is throwing ideas up in the air to see what
\nwill stick. That most of it does stick is to her credit, but if she
\ncan show a little bit more focus, her next release will be one
\nawesome piece of work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":28103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7630],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39497","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-laura-cantrell","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39497"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}