Karyn Oliver
Album: Magdalene
Label: Buxom County
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.karynoliver.com

I'm not sure that the cover image of Karyn - frizzy blonde hair, leather jacket - entirely conforms to the sound of her music, an appealing, steel- and piano-bedecked, softly-driven, yearning country. But no matter, when the quality and assurance of her performance and personality is apparent from the word go on the title track of this, Karyn's second album release since attaining the status of Mid-Atlantic Song Contest winner in 2010 and Kerrville New Folk Finalist the following year. There proves more to Karyn than the country flavours of that opener, however, and her singing also encompasses dimensions of expressive soulfulness (Slip Away With Me) and Lucinda Williams-like empathy for the underdog (Weeping Willow Road).

I do feel, though, that vocally, Karyn perhaps doesn't always entirely convince us that she's lived the situations she writes about (as on Water), and sometimes she gives the impression of trying too hard to emote à-la-Janis Joplin (Fooling), but by and large her writing wins through any uncertainties in execution and performance. It helps that she's gained the assistance of Thomm Jutz for the album's production, and his hand-picked Nashville studio crew comprises suitably skilled players (Barry Walsh, Terry Crisp, Mark Fain, Gary Smith, Lynn Williams and Thomm himself) who've all the chops they need to sensitively score Karyn's thoughtful narratives. The album flags a touch towards the end though, with the penultimate three or four tracks seeming a touch routine, even insubstantial, although things pick up a bit with Before You Came Along. The final pair of (bonus) tracks just reprise two of the earlier songs (Slip Away With Me and Water) in pared-down acoustic versions that I think I prefer to their more fully-scored counterparts, although Karyn's mannerisms can still feel a touch exaggerated, even in the sparser setting. Finally, I'm not completely sold on Karyn's choice of covers: Baby Come Back doesn't really suit Karyn's vocal temperament, while I'll always question the need for yet another version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, although Karyn's gospel-Americana-styled rendition of that number proves both sincere and plausible.

David Kidman