一聽音樂網

Elizabeth Cook's cornbread-and-cracklings approach to modern country music isn't everybody's cup of homebrew. But her backwoods lineage is genuine: her daddy learned to play doghouse bass in a Georgia prison band, doing 11 years for running moonshine. And there are plucky moments--especially on "Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman," where she sounds like she could be the Coal Miner's Daughter's feminist grandkid. On this, Cook's fourth album, producer Rodney Crowell knows how to frame her as both authentic and hip, bringing alt-country prince Bobby Bare Jr. on board for the affecting mountain love song "Rest Your Weary Mind," and elsewhere imbuing her original shuffles and ballads with chickin'-pickin' guitars, languid fiddle solos, and even a jew's harp on the hoedown-ish "Times Are Tough in Rock 'n' Roll" ("All my feelings, all my fears/Were confirmed with Britney Spears.") There's a surprise around every corner--"He Got No Heart" is a sassy throwback to Wanda Jackson, while "Mama's Prayers" evokes the threadbare innocence of Iris DeMent, and "What Do I Do" finds Cook's twangy soprano leaping into the honky-tonk stratosphere. But get ready for her cover of the Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning," which she dang near makes her own. Then again, that's something you might expect from a girl with an affinity for vintage cocktail dresses who still insists on baiting her own hook.