Leigh Nash
Album: The State I'm In
Label: Thrity Tigers
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.leighnash.net

For those not up on their Christian rock, Nash fronted (and perhaps still does) Sixpence None the Richer, a Texan country-pop outfit named from a passage in C.S.Lewis's 'Mere Christianity' which briefly crossed over into the mainstream in the late 90s with hit singles 'Kiss Me' and a cover of the Las 'There She Goes'. They split in 2004, reunited five years later and last released an album in 2012. Meanwhile, Nash has been pursuing a solo career, releasing her debut in 2006, joining forces for an album as Fauxliage with Canadian outfit Delerium the following year and recording worship album 'Hymns and Sacred Songs' in 2011.

This, her third solo release, the songs all co-penned by Nash, variously with Jesse Hall, Gerry House and new husband Stephen Wilson, sees her back to the mainstream, bringing a contemporary spin to the sort of music on which she was raised in Texas Hill Country; a cocktail of Roy Orbison pop, Willie Nelson country and Mexican mariachi, complete with a large of dose of singalong honky tonk heartbreak, and citing influences ranging from Jim Reeves to Patsy Cline to Brian Wilson.

Produced by Brendan Benson, backed by some of Nashville's top session names (including Jack White's fiddler, Lillie Mae Rische) and featuring award-winning a cappella group Street Corner Symphony, backed by honky tonk piano it opens with 'Spider and the Moth', a strings-swathed, slow waltz Brenda Lee-like torchy confessional about taking wrong turns and digging your own grave as she pleads "tonight could we be what we were once before."

Again recalling Lee and suggesting those Reeves influences, the equally waltzing honky tonk 'Cruel Heart' underlines that pervasive old school country sound before 'Chicago' takes the tempo down for a lonesome 'going back' ballad, Nash's yearning tones complemented by organ, pedal steel and choral backing vocals, one of several play again straight away tracks here.

With its brass flourishes, keyboard jabs and barbershop harmonies, 'Mountain' doesn't quite fall into that category, but nevertheless has a jaunty jazzy swing, as does the 60s poppy 'What's Behind Me', the vocals again light and breezy, with its lyric nod to 'God Only Knows'. Then, break-up number 'Somebody's Yesterday' heads into Marty Robbins territory with its mariachi horns, the album staying close to the border for 'The Promise Break', although this time with more Latin and bluesy colours, the verses tangoing up to the chorus and a Spanish guitar break.

The full lush is uncorked for the romantically melancholic 'Dreaming Of Love', the orchestration, swirling melody and Nash's vocals conjuring images of 30s ballrooms and then it's back to Nashville for the good time feel of uptempo double-meaning title track with its fiddle, accordion and pedal steel , even if the lyrics - part of which she sings in Spanish - involve a cheating lover. Then again, as she makes clear, you don't tangle with a Texas girl.

The album has a strong finish too. Featuring the Street Corner Symphony male voices, 'High Is Better' is a terrific playful honky tonk number (about relying on cheap wine and weed to get through a stagnating marriage when you can't afford the therapy bills that could easily pass for 'Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad' style Wynette. This is followed by another Wilson co-write, Nash's voice soaring on the Partonesque 'Tell Me Now Tennessee' before, a collaboration with Benson, it rocks out in upbeat mode with the blues electric guitar licks and organ drive of 'Doing It Wrong'. Not on this evidence she isn't.

Mike Davies