chron.com | tubular tv | comics | games | horoscopes | iPhone | Quick Search
It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
Daughter Of Your Bones
The raw-nerved female singer-songwriter now sounds like an embarrassing relic from the mid-'90s, which is why I don't receive nearly as many terrible confessionals put to plastic as I used to. I have to wonder if this is also why I receive far fewer women-made local discs these days. Are women more afraid than men to get their hands dirty with something more complicated than a guitar and a four-track?
Sara Van Buskirk isn't. Sure, she's a woman with a guitar, but her new album, The Place Where You Are, benefits from a few friends (from The Literary Greats) on piano, mandolin, bass, drums and organ. The resulting sound is elegantly ragged Americana, anchored by Van Buskirk's rugged warble that is at times a dead ringer for Brandi Carlile.
Each song tells a new story, mostly of confused characters dealing with loss of lovers, of friends, of family. She deftly avoids falling into maudlin pits of despair despite the subject matter, likely because her steely voice isn't the call of a vulnerable girl. The best moments on the album are the most raucous, lined with Van Buskirk's harmonica as on How It Goes, or infused with bluesy swagger as on Tennessee Whiskey.
Other highlights on the disc include the reverent air of Daughter of Your Bones, pretty harmonies on Best Man and the wistful I Wish I Was His Wife.
-- Sara Cress | May 2010
Post new comment