Following hot on the heels of last years excellent Dead Flowers EP where Caitlin Rose a great new prospect from Nashville, Tennessee set out her stall, we now have her full blown debut album "Own side now" to contend with. The entirety of it can be heard in full streaming on her on MySpace page and what a gem it is. Rose cites as her influences some impeccable artists not least Linda Ronstadt, Gram Parsons, The Replacements, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell and Elliott Smith. Echoes of all of these can be found on "Own side now" indeed the title track would have fitted perfectly on Ronstadt's "Hasten down the wind" and indeed the album is as much about Laurel Canyon as it is Nashville in terms of its sources. "For the Rabbits" alternatively has a bluesy feel where Rose exhorts us to "Fall back into my desperate arms/Fall back into routine disaster/ Because its better than spending all your nights alone". Further highlights include the wistful "Sinful wishing well" where Rose summons up a Patti Page style heartbreaker. "That's alright" is not a cover of the great Elvis Sun recording but a track in the linage of the great Hank Williams and is totally effortless. Throughout the songwriting on the album is top notch and for a 23 year old shows a wisdom beyond her years and a real ability to vary her plays. Thus "Shanghai Cigarettes" is rockier, with wry lyrics, excellent backing vocals from Jordan Caress and inevitably reminds you of Lucinda Williams circa "Car wheels on a gravel road". Finally "Coming up" the brilliant closer on the album is a signal that when Rose can match a classic song with a brilliant lyric she is unstoppable. It is here that the comparisons to country greats like Loretta Lynn truly stack up and the second half of the song has a guitar feel reminiscent to Flying Burrito Brothers and you sense that Gram Parsons would have thoroughly approved.
In other reviews I have commented what a great year 2010 is for female artists. New singers like Laura Marling, Anais Mitchell and Lissie have all released inspirational albums which should be sought out by the discerning Amazon reader. To this list now please add "Own Side Now" by Caitlin Rose. Like the flower that is her surname the songs on this albums vary from wild to cultivated but all have a rich individual quality and sense of intimacy. It will be fascinating to see in future albums how she develops her distinctive music, but for now we have a visible result staring us in the face and its a winner.
