Humming By The Flowered Vine

As with Alison Krauss, there's something about Cantrell's voice that can transport you – hoodwinking the unwary into thinking you've stumbled across the young girl-next-door, aimlessly singing to herself, early evening, alone out on the porch. Khaki & Corduroy, possibly the highlight here, is such a song – an effortless, innocent sounding tune to lose your heart to.

When Cantrell follows it with Letters, however, she sounds confident –a modern woman in the big city. It's the most contemporary of the songs here. Elsewhere she acknowledges the heritage of her country muse. California Rose is for California country music pioneer Rose Maddox and Poor Ellen Smith is an old Appalachian murder ballad. This is Cantrell's gift, to twin the old and the new, melding them together into something pure and timeless.