Farmer's Daughter [CD]

American Idol runner up 2010, only followed AI last year to watch Crystal.
She is fantastic and this debut album excellent!! So nice to listen to a true artist rather than the usual meaninless manufactured pop.

Kenny Rogers famously sung about meeting Lucille in a bar in Toledo, but while that story was most likely fictional, Crystal Bowersox really did begin her career playing music in barrooms in the Toledo area of Ohio. She got her lucky break on American Idol, finishing runner-up to Lee DeWyze in the 2010 series. Living in the UK without a TV and not listening to music radio, I was unaware of all this until one Monday when I was looking through that day's new CD releases, saw this one listed and surfed the net for more info. Encouraged by what I read, I decided to buy.

Crystal wrote or co-wrote most of the songs, there being one original that she didn't write or co-write, together with a cover of For what it's worth (Buffalo Springfield). Of course, she sang plenty of covers on the American Idol series (as far as I know, not including For what it`s worth), but this album is mostly about her own songs, many of which appear to be autobiographical.

The opening track (Riding with radio) is a rocking song complaining about the music to be heard on the radio these days. It's not a new theme, so clearly there are plenty of dissatisfied listeners out there. Crystal says in the song that she isn't writing for the radio, so there has to be a question regarding how much airplay she gets in the long term. For this album following her appearances on American Idol, she'll probably get the airplay anyway, at least in America. For subsequent albums, who knows? I do hope that Crystal sticks to what she believes in. Shelby Lynne discovered that it is a hard road to travel, but she is probably happier than she would have been just doing what the music business wanted her to do. It will be interesting to follow Crystal's career, especially given what she said in the song.

The other really angry song here is the title track (Farmer's daughter). Now, I had a lousy relationship with my parents, especially my mother, from as far back as I can remember, but the title track suggests that Crystal's relationship with her mother was even worse. Even without knowing exactly what Crystal had to put up with, I feel her pain. I relate to that song all too well.

Elsewhere, Crystal shows both an independent streak (On the run, Arlene) and a desire for love (Mason, Kiss ya, Mine all mine, Lonely won`t come around). Hold on (about a past love) and Holy Toledo (which finds her dreaming about the future) provide further contrasts. In real life, Crystal got married a couple of months before this album was released, so maybe she's not quite as independent as some of the songs would suggest.

As originally recorded, the lyrics contain two words that are most diplomatically described as earthy. One rhymes with spit (and is used once each in Kiss ya and Riding the radio) and the other rhymes with sucking (and is used in the title track). However, the CD as sold on Amazon is censored to remove the offending word from the title track although the other word has been left unedited. Amazon list the uncensored version as a download in MP3 format. Maybe the uncensored version will one day be available on CD, but I'm not going to worry about that. I just felt that it was important to mention it, especially as the lyrics in the booklet have both offending words crossed out. It seems odd that they crossed out both words in the lyric, but only censored one in the recording.

Crystal's music is best described as pop/rock music with country influences, but even that description over-simplifies it. I'll just say that if you enjoy the music of either Moorer sister (Shelby Lynne or Allison), or if you enjoy Sheryl Crow's music, you might consider giving this album a listen.

I saw Crystal on American idol last year and she was great so had to get her album and it doesn't disappoint great stuff