Altsounds - Sara Watkins - Sara Watkins [Album]

I love the way the opening track 'All This Time' repeats the key line 'All This Time' over and over again. It's hypnotic like the Country & Western version of a strobe in a techno gig. Drug-like it numbs one part of the brain to let other parts that enjoy the unexpected freedom. The song is the stand-out along with the eerie violin driven and 'Bygones' which is also one hell of a lovely song; powerful but quietly spoken.

Is this conventional Country & Western music? I'd probably have to go back to Nashville to get an honest opinion on that and as coincidence would have it, Nashville is where the self titled Sara Watkins album was recorded. Have a drink in Printer's Alley for me then Sara! The music is somewhere slightly on the alternative side of a country and bluegrass collision but what does trying to put it in genre based boxes prove? Just that Sara Watkins is far enough away from stereotypical Country music to be listened to even when you are NOT wearing cowboy boots. Sure the self titled debut album has got plenty of pedal steel and fiddle in there but it's Sara Watkins' voice that is the major redeeming feature. Most of the time the voice is out on its own, only occasionally worked in alongside backing harmonies.

Eight of the fourteen tracks are written (or co-written) by Sara herself. Elsewhere there's a cover of Tom Waits' lovely lilting 'Pony', at least it's lilting when Sara sings it. Of course a Waits cover is almost obligatory. As the CD progresses through the tracks there is a familiar pattern, here's a jaunty bluegrass swing, there's a sad slow one. Sara Watkins is usually a member of Nickel Creek, a band that's been on a long term break while the members try out solo projects. This is Sara's debut solo record and a pretty good one, but I can't help feeling she's steering a somewhat safe course here.

I've heard more beguiling bluegrass voices - if you really want to be bewitched, try Jolie Holland, Sara is much more mainstream. It's produced by John Paul Jones, yes that one, the very first words on her website point this out. To be honest, I can see why he has bothered. Unless you're being cynical and think that just because one member of Led Zeppelin has a tame country singer, then why shouldn't he?

Overall, Sara Watkins debut, self titled album has just a couple of wonderful tracks - 'All This Time' and 'Bygones', plenty of good-enough middle ground, and the odd twinge of cringe ('Give Me Jesus'), which oddly enough is fine in my book. Sara Watkins has done a pretty decent job here. Would I spend money to go and see her? Probably. Will this stay on the iPod? Probably. Will I end up skipping past the tracks on shuffle? Probably.