A fresh country-rock voice

Reviewed April 2007

Gina Villalobos, who hails from Los Angeles, might not be able to re-ignite that country-rock genre all by herself, but her new album is surely a convincing argument that much remains to be mined in the territory between country and rock.

Villalobos' distinctive vocals are the anchor here – sweet but with a bit of a burr to the edge, her voice is the perfect vehicle for her smart, insightful lyrics. Her songs have as much twang as her voice, but are underpinned by a rock beat. The instrumentation falls somewhere in between, with electric guitar and bass supplemented by pedal steel guitar and fiddle.

Still, it's the songs that make or break an album: Villalobos is an even better songwriter than she is singer. Elegant melodic themes mark the 10 tracks here, complemented by a complexity that gives the band something to work with. The last two tracks are as strong as the first two, and if there's a letdown in between it escaped your loyal correspondent. Anyone who likes a twangy groove combining rock and country is going to find "Miles Away" added to their stack of fave listens.

Review by Jim Trageser. Jim is a writer and editor living in Escondido, Calif., and was a contributor to the "Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD" (1993) and "The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues" (2005).