Tina Adair "Just You Wait And See" (Sugar Hill, 1997)
A nice mix of solid picking and the mellow, romantic crossover material favored by fans of Alison Krauss, et al. The comparison is both inevitable, and warranted, as the teen age Adair is produced on her debut by Jerry Douglas, and backed up by slick newgrass "usual suspects" such as Douglas, Alan O'Bryant, Aubrey Haynie and Chris Thile... Yet despite the tilt towards the predictable, Adair has a certain flair and distinctive, charismatic aura to her. PLus, she chooses some interesting material... Sure, there's a limp version of Poco's '70s soft-rock oldie, "Crazy Love," but there's also a Sandy Denny cover (!) and a sizzler or two such as "My Time To Go," originally by Molly O'Day. Sometimes her vocals and the arrangements drag a bit, but overall, this is pretty good. Wonder whatever happened to this gal...!

Kay Adams "Wheels And Tears" (Tower, 1966/Sundazed, 2004)
A great set of mid-1960s, West Coast-flavored trucker songs... Adams, a sassy singer who sounded a bit like Loretta Lynn, had a sizeable hit with the novelty song "Little Pink Mack," and they naturally tried to follow it up with similar material, like "Six Days Awaiting," an answer song to Dave Dudley's wildly popular "Six Days On The Road." That didn't work quite as well, but the rest of this album is still a lot of fun -- it's pure, glorious Bakersfield twang, and definitely worth checking out if you like the cool old stuff. Adams even pays homage to a West Coast foremother, Rose Maddox with a fine version of "Big, Big Day Tomorrow," a great old weeper that Rose recorded a few years earlier. Folks looking for lost gems in country's past would be well advised to snap this tasty reissue up now, while you still have the chance!

Susie Allanson "Don't Say You're Mine" (ABC, 1976)
Yikes. I mean, I guess the music's okay, but she has kind of a scary, not-that-great and somewhat irritating voice... it's amazing she had as much success on the Country charts as she did in the late '70s. Halfway through this album, I realized she had a sort of Vegas-y showtunes vibe going on, and sure enough: Allanson's previous triumphs came as a cast member of "Hair" and "Jesus Christ Superstar." It's worth noting that none of the songs on this particular album (which is kind of a trainwreck) had any chart success; maybe when she switched labels (and presumably producers), the folks over at Curb had more success getting her to shed some of the brassy Broadway affectations and learn a style more appropriate to actual country music. I dunno: when I find out, though, I'll let you know.

Deborah Allen "Anthology" (Renaissance, 1998)
Her initial chart entries were "duets" with countrypolitan crooner Jim Reeves, whose death in 1964 didn't prevent the RCA label from releasing singles for decades to come. A trio of these tunes kicks off this disc, with Allen's Parton-esque vocals engulfed by a barrage of slightly piercing (and entirely egregious) string arrangements. She swiftly emerged as a solo singer, at her best fronting perky synthabilly hits like "I've Been Wrong Before" and a whole host of drippier Flashdance-y followups. This is a pretty comprehensive retrospective of her work on RCA, Capitol, and the Giant imprint... Maybe not the greatest hick music ever, but her fans will be thrilled to track this disc down...

Deborah Allen "Anthology" (Curb, 2000)
(Produced by Deborah Allen & Bobby Braddock)
Re-recorded versions of some of her old ballads... If you want the originals, you'll need to look elsewhere, but if you want to hear what Allen sounded like a little later on, then check this one out.

Deborah Allen "Delta Dreamland" (Warner Brothers, 1993)

Deborah Allen "All That I Am" (Warner Brothers, 1994)

Rosalie Allen "The Hillbilly Yodel Star Of The 1940s" (Cattle Compact)
A great reissue record that fills in a major blank in the history of women in country music. Allen was a powerful, appealing singer whose material split between novelty numbers ("Take It Back And Change It For A Boy" being a highlight...) and sentimental weepers. She's a bit like a softer version of Rose Maddox - rural but heartfelt, and a compelling performer. She hung out with Elton Britt and Zeke Manners (which may explain the upbeat nature of many of these tunes...) and while she was billed as a yodeller, this collection only has a couple of yodelling tunes. Apparently, Allen gave up recording around 1955, but this disc collects a fabulous sweep of material made from 1944-1949. Although her unvaried vocal style gets a little monotonous if you listen to the disc repeatedly, this is great in small doses, and highly recommended.

Liz Anderson -- see artist discography

Lynn Anderson -- see artist discography

Any Old Time String Band (Bay/Arhoolie, 1978, 1980)
This San Francisco Bay Area ensemble was one of the most charming -- and accomplished -- of the late -'70s string band revivalists. The 1996 CD reissue combines two LPs originally released in 1978 and 1980, and features their lovely version of the melodic oldie, "C-U-B-A," originally a hit for Billy Murray in 1920. The lineup changed between albums, but Kate Brislin and Sue Draheim were core members of the band, along with Genny Haley on guitar... and their sense of "old-time" music, including old-time jazz and Tin Pan Alley material, was right on the button. Very sweet and highly recommended.

Katie Armiger "Katie Armiger" (Cold River, 2007)

Charline Arthur "Welcome To The Party" (Bear Family, 1998)
A stellar collection of ultra-rare oldies by one of hard country's most elusive figures. Brassy, loudmouthed and a snarly, dynamic singer, Arthur demolished the traditional role of the passive, ladylike country "girl" singer. Back in the early '50s, when all the other gals were demurely performing in Kitty Wells-style gingham dresses, Arthur was wearing slacks, smoking cigarettes, and cussing Chet Atkins out in the RCA recording booth. It was probably the last habit that had the most to do with her swift fall from grace -- Arthur was dumped from the label in 1956, after having plugged away for several years without much commercial success. Admittedly, Arthur's bluesy, occasionally raunchy style was at odds with the expectations of the times, but it's a tragedy she wasn't allowed to grow as an artist -- her vocals and approach certainly prefigured the work of bluesy country/pop stylists like Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee, and (of course...) the rockabilly bop of Wanda Jackson. Notably, the singer whose voice most resembles Arthur is Skeeter Davis, who Atkins did succeed in taming -- you can hear similar attempts to soften and Nashville-ize Arthur's vocals throughout this disc. But uptempo or slowed down, Charline Arthur was a force to be reckoned with, and this CD should send a quiver through the hard country community -- check it out!

Susan Ashton "Closer" (Capitol, 1999)
Hmmm. A contemporary Christian singer's big bid for commerical country success, after a decade-long career as a star at the top of her original niche market. Her bright, poppy sound, courtesy of veteran producer Emory Gordy, Jr., has a pleasantly dated sound, but her evangelical Christian reputation may have held her back in the charts. Most of these songs are romantically themed and secular, although the single, "Faith Of The Heart," was a bit preachy. Not bad, but not strong enough to break away from her old scene, and not religious enough to please her old fans.

Sherrie Austin "Words" (Arista, 1997)
At first glance, the chirpy, vivacious Austin seems like a breath of fresh air, but the thrill doesn't last. Her debut album opens with a twisting, Tanya Tucker-ish rebel-rock snarl ("Lucky In Love"), a mood that's somewhat sustained on the next track... And then it all goes to pot when the overly-obvious, issue-y, femme-oriented ballads kick in. Too many of those, and too many useless, distracting production touches slathered atop the uptempo tunes, which is where Austin may be at her best. Of her albums, this is probably the best, but still there's nothing on here that I'd need to come back to.

Sherrie Austin "Love In The Real World" (Arista, 1999)
Austin has a reedy, thin voice, which I guess could pass for a young Tanya Tucker or Rachel Sweet, if it weren't for her lack of ooompf in the clinch, and the generic sexy/come-on quality of the lyrics. The virginal lure of "Never Been Kissed" is kinda icky (and the song is really just teenieboppish bubblegum pop, worthy of Debbie Gibson, Pebbles and their ilk... ) Even a song like "Little Bird," which starts off with a promising Texas shuffle backbeat, devolves into hackneyed, blaring rock guitar riffs. And then those damn power ballads kick in! (Including one recycled from the last album... yeesh.) Austin's marginally cute, but definitely a second stringer.

Sherrie Austin "Followin' A Feelin' " (Madacy, 2001)
This disc opens with a bland cover of Dolly Parton's classic, "Jolene," then slides sideways from there. When Austin just sings, it's okay, but as soon as the songs get high-concept or take on an overly-obvious "common touch" (playing up to the harried, late-for-the-bus, working class hero inside us all...) things get kinda yawnsville. For the most part, this album just seems overly intellectualized, overly calculated and tres formulaic. Songs like "In Our Own Sweet Time" and "Back Where I Belong" function okay as glitzy '80s-ish pop, but as country...? Nope. I can't think of a single song on here, really, that caught my sincere interest.

Sherrie Austin "Streets Of Heaven" (Broken Bow, 2003)
The title track -- a shameless weeper about a little girl dying and going to heaven -- is the album's highlight. The rest of this album is pretty vapid... Embarassingly so, actually. It's like hearing the daily diary of some would-be poet in junior high put to music, with appallingly blunt, simplistic lyrics and lame turns of phrase that I'm sure she thought were the bee's knees when she first wrote 'em. And, yes, Austin (co)wrote all but one of the songs on here. So she's prolific... good for her. Too bad she's not also a little more skillful. Poppy, formulaic rock-drenched Nashville nothingness.

Axton Kincaid "Songs From The Pine Room" (Self-Released, 2006)
The first full-length release from this gritty San Francisco alt-grass outfit reprises some of the songs from an earlier EP, notably "Who's Gonna Pour My Whiskey When You're Gone?", a catchy mix of honkytonk and old-timey stringband stomp, and the evocative drinkin'-and-thinkin' tune, "Red Light." The group handily fits into the contemporary altbilly scene, with a particular affinity for all those folks from the Midwest who know what it's like to drink too much, too often and really not give a damn. Freakwater and Scrawl come to mind right off the bat, but maybe that's just because the main vocalists are gals, but also because the lyrics are very downer-iffic and express a distinctly female perspective, albeit one that's rather grungey, raw, urban and hip. The remnants of the band's rock'n'roll past are readily evident, both thematically and musically -- mandolin picker Jennifer Daunt takes several searching, improvvy solos that have that choppy, rockin' feel to 'em, but while she lacks the technical rigor and formalism of mainstream bluegrassers, she makes up for it by sounding like a real, live human being, rather than just another hotshot superpicker. Flaws are one of the things that help define this band -- songwriter Kate Howser paints portraits that are often desolate and unfulfilled, but also joyful and unrepentant, a mixture of moods that is reflected in the music. In true DIY spirit, the imperfections are there, but they help you notice the sparkle of the gem underneath. (For more info, see axtonkincaid.com )

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Hick Music Index
Sisters Who Swung: Women In Jazz & Blues

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