Music Review: Rissi Palmer – Rissi Palmer - Page 2

Palmer eases the listener into the album with "Hold On To Me," a song Faith Hill once considered for one of her albums, and drives right into fast-paced "Country Girl," her signature song. She sets the record straight:

"You don't have to be a Georgia peach from Savannah Beach to say/From Arkansas to appreciate a Southern drawl/Don't need no kin from West Virginia to have it in ya/Show the world you're a country girl."

Palmer said she wrote "Country Girl" halfway through recording the album, because she felt she needed a song that defined who she was. The Pittsburgh-born/St. Louis-bred singer told Country Music Weekly that the song is "about how you don't have to be from the South to be a country girl. It's a set of values and morals you grow up with."

Slower songs like "Anybody Out There," a plaintive ballad about longing for that elusive soul mate, and "Hurt Don't Know When To Quit," a Wynonna Judd-sounding track about the pain of a breakup, show off Palmer's clear, pitch-perfect voice. She hits every note with precision. The fast-paced "Mr. Ooh La La" features a strong hook and demonstrates Palmer's vocal versatility.

Listening to the sweet harmony of "All This Woman Needs" and infectious chorus in "Flowers On My Window Ledge," it's obvious Palmer loves this kind of music. The R&B-influenced "Love You Like A Woman" doesn't dim her born-to-sing-country aura. She imprints her style on a remake of the late Patsy Cline's "Leavin' On Your Mind," an evocative country music classic. (Cline was a favorite of Palmer's mother, who died when she was seven.)

I was delighted to discover that Palmer is a Christian (she thanks her "Lord and savior Jesus Christ" in the liner notes), and "I'm Not Of This World" is a not-so-subtle shout-out to her faith:

"Slave to my cravings/Is what I used to be/Played with fire/Didn't mean a thing to me/Then I discovered my soul is not my own/Glory be the day when I come home/Cause I am not alone/So I will rise above/Cause I'm not of this world."

Palmer lists artists like Cline, Phoebe Snow, India.Arie, and Prince among her musical influences, but nobody will challenge her country creds after listening to this album. If you intensely dislike country music, you won't like Rissi Palmer. If you love the genre, or you're at least willing to give it a try, Rissi Palmer won't disappoint.

Article Author: La Shawn Barber

La Shawn Barber is a Southern California-based freelance writer, blogger, and blog consultant. She writes about politics, faith, culture, digital technology and, occasionally, how these things intersect. …

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