No Way There From Here
With Kacey Musgraves, Brandy Clark and others reshaping Nashville's singer-songwriter landscape, it may be time for Laura Cantrell, a New York banker(!) and indie-country vet shaped by but not chained to country history. Cut in Music City with local help, her new LP might have been titled for opener "All the Girls Are Complicated." They sure are: See "Letter She Sent," a trio of character studies that go from beat to modestly beatific, and "Driving Down Your Street," slyly using military snare to suggest a lover's obsessive resolve. Cantrell brings bell-like vocal clarity to her stories, which illuminate more than explain – just enough to make you want to hear 'em again.