San Diego twang

Reviewed June 2008

From her early days fronting local Top 40 cover bands, San Diego's Eve Selis has matured into one of the top singers on the area's roots music scene playing regularly with folks like Tim Flannery and Berkley Hart. Her new album, "Angels and Eagles," shows that Selis continues to grow as a musician, to improve as songwriter and singer. Her rough-hewn vocals are a perfect match for her countrified rock songs, and she assembled a stellar lineup of musicians for the sessions.

The opening, title track on the CD is as good a song to come out of San Diego County in, well, ever. Gorgeous melody, soaring harmonies, wonderful lyrics – it's a perfect pop song, like something John Mellencamp, Neil Young or a young Bob Seger might have turned out.

The rest of the disc is similarly solid – in the vein of Emmylou Harris, melding country and rock into something uniquely Californian.

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).