Jackson, Strait, And Buffet To Release Live Album And Unpolished Performance Adds To Lambert’s Appeal

UPDATE: Billboard has more information the album, including a list of the songs from each artist that will appear on the album.

Yet for all of her energy, genre-blindness and genuine charisma, Lambert is still a little rough around the edges, almost coltish in her eagerness to connect with the audience. Her stage patter didn’t consist of much more than plugging her upcoming album, thanking the crowd for supporting her debut album, Kerosene, and giving shout-outs to local radio for “playing the crap” out of her songs.

Jason Gonulsen from Glide Magazine has a beauty of a quote from Steve Earl saying that Patty’s songs “make most people a little uncomfortable–like they’ve just walked in on a private moment in someone else’s life and they know they should turn around and tiptoe away, but they can’t. They make me jealous.”

Jenni L. Simmons from Americana Roots describes my favorite track, “Trapeze:”

“Trapeze” is a musical vignette of a fluid duet with Emmylou Harris. Their warm harmonies and balanced vibratos twirl ’round and upwards, further painting the portrait of a trapeze daredevil whose courage is part of her hope. The music lilts along and culminates in Griffin banging her guitar and both women proclaim, “Hallelujah” over and over (and I must say, they ought to do a whole album together. This song and “Long Ride Home” from 1,000 Kisses are startling proof).

I listened to the album one time through this morning and enjoyed the stripped down quality of her music. It’ll be one that I will definitely go back and listen to again.

Listening to Charlie Louvin’s new album of old songs is like hearing your grandfather sing hymns. The 80-year-old country music veteran has the warm and easy authority of someone who has spent his entire life with these songs; he knows every word, every melody, every implication by heart. His voice, hardened by experience, sounds worn and weary, especially compared to his popular material of 50 years ago. Most of all it sounds lonely, as if it were created by God specifically to harmonize with his brother Ira Louvin, who died in 1965.