Laura Cantrell - Kitty Wells Dresses

Laura Cantrell - Rolling Stone once said that the Nashville-raised singer's crystalline voice was "pitched somewhere between the bluesy realism of Lucinda Williams and the vintage femininity of Kitty Wells", something used to fine effect on this new album of covers (and the title track original) from one of country music's trail-blazing '50's icons...Cantrell has found major success across the pond with late, great BBC DJ John Peel naming one of her 2000 debut "my favourite record of the last ten years and possibly my life" // Release: Kitty Wells Dresses: Songs of the Queen of Country Music (June 21 U.S., May 16 digitally) // Sounds like: Cantrell makes Dresses a less predictable outing with emphasis on less obvious songs (and omitting kitschy hits like "I Can't Stop Loving You") while keeping the production reverently vintage in approach, thanks to sidemen including Chris Scruggs and Chuck Mead from BR549 and Paul Niehaus of Calexico // Quote: "I've been a Kitty Wells fan since childhood…I always responded to the fundamental feeling in Wells’ singing, her way of sounding both emotional and restrained at once, as if she were hanging on despite life’s many hardships." What we like: Cantrell's restrained, warm and wistful singing give these classics a dreamy, almost eerie feel...the longing for a time when "sentimental" music could reveal a dark mysterious underbelly, as on "I Gave My Wedding Dress Away" and "Poison In Your Heart"...

Laura Cantrell - "Kitty Wells Dresses" (from the album Kitty Wells Dresses)

Laura Cantrell - Kitty Wells Dresses Sampler (Excerpts)

Photo Credit - Ted Barron