Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
On January 17, Amy Lavere’s Debut album, This World Is Not My Home will hit the shelves. Lavere, who pens her own country style music (Half of the ten tracks on This World Is Not My Home were written by Lavere.) and plays a stand up bass, has a soft southern style quality to her voice. She delivers her songs with a manner that fits her genre. Not only for the fact and the way she plays stand up bass, but also for the uniquely feminine quality to her voice she is extremely reminiscent of Alison Krauss.
Her musical roots and influences include Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. Coming from a musical home, her mother played guitar and her father drums, she spent a lot of time at blues festivals and it shows. You can hear a real blues influence in the music, especially the track, “Set it Down.”
Aside from the definitive country/bluegrass sound of the album, there are some very obvious jazz influences peeking out from under the layers in some of the songs. The track “Take ‘Em Or Leave ‘Em” is a good example of this. With it’s moody bluesy feel, and the flirty seductive tone, the song speaks of the innocence of new love in a way that is classic of the standards.
On the contrary, “Leaving” cannot be mistaken for anything other then what it is — pure old school country. The Hank Williams influences ever present as she croons the mournful, tearful, song about loss. This is one of the songs written by Amy and it shows in the personalized emotions that emulate from the lyrics.
“Nightingale” is heavy on the stand up bass and is one of those songs that strongly remind me of Alison Krauss. More bluegrass then pure country, her soft womanly voice sings of a metaphoric nightingale’s song. With a rolling quality to her voice, the words flow gently as the notes climb and fall.
If there were to be weak link on the album, it would be the song “Innocent Girl.” Though it fits with the tone and the mood of the album, it isn’t of the same quality as the rest with lyrics that are a bit clique and a slow rather monotonous tone.
All in all, however, it is a good solid Country album, that teeters on the edge of bluegrass and has some evident jazz influences, one I would definitely recommend to a fan of this type of music.
In addition to her music career, Amy is also an actress. She appeared in Walk The Line as Wanda Jackson, and is cast to play Jesse in the upcoming production of Blue Snake Moan.
