Laura Cantrell

Humming By The Flowered Vine – (Matador)

Laura Cantrell has a reputation for good taste, evidenced by both her cover choices as well as her Radio Thrift Shop show on WFMU.  Cantrell is a scholar of fine country music and that’s clearly rubbed off on a career now celebrating its third long-player.  With Humming By The Flowered Vine, Cantrell continues to move closer to that perfect spot between country music’s past and present.

The opening "14^th Street" comes on as a surprise, sounding like the most adult-contemporary radio-friendly thing Matador Records has ever been behind (by the way, kudos to Matador’s “quality first” policy in putting this out), that’s for sure.  A sweet bit of country pop written by Emily Spray, this should bring more than a few new listeners Cantrell’s way – in a just world, of course.

Cantrell is a lot more than just “sweet” though.  Her interpretation of Lucinda William’s “Letters” is more than convincing, and her stroll through “Old Downtown” is an effective personal look at not only how places change but how people do as well – made even more effective thanks to some fine tough guitar here.

Songs like “What You Said” show that Cantrell and friends can sound as contemporary as they care to, while her take on Wynn Stewart’s “Wishful Thinking” is a lovely bit of traditional honky-tonk that’ll please the purists out there.  Calexico’s John Convertino and Joey Burns (roots music’s “Sly And Robbie”!) add a fair bit of cool to “And Still”, one of the more dramatic reading here and Cantrell pays a lovely tribute to Rose Maddox on “California Rose”.  One of the only distractions here is Cantrell’s take on “Poor Ellen Smith” – regardless of authenticity, it’s Neko Case’s recent (two!) versions that pretty much own this song these days.

Her best record to date, Humming By The Flowered Vine accomplishes two things – it’s a darn fine record as is but it also shows even more promise.  I think Cantrell’s “career” recording has yet to arrive and when it does, watch out.