Smart Choice Music (UK) July 14, 2009:
Angela Easterling won the SCM ‘album of the year’ award at the end of 2006 for her CD Earning Her Wings – and became our very first ‘Enjoy This CD or get your money back’ offer, so impressed were we with the CD. 2009 sees the release of her follow-up Blacktop Road, an equally impressive sophomore release.
Blacktop Road has moved Angela’s standing as an artist forward significantly – produced by Will Kimbrough, the CD features an A-List lineup of musicians including Al Perkins, Fats Kaplin, Ken Coomer, Anne McCue and Dave Jacques, and displays a more personal writing approach. Where her last album was observational, with tales of characters set in short stories, the subject matter on the new CD clearly comes more from the heart, and the material is consequently even more striking.
Blacktop Road is again full of catchy hooks, and memorable tunes, with Angela’s pure, clear and unadorned voice rising above the jangling guitars and alt.county rhythms. Roger McGuinn picked the anthemic opener, American ID to play as one of his choice cuts on a recent BBC radio slot, and the Byrds-esqe feel of this track does set the tone for the CD.
There is less ‘country’ than on Earning Her Wings, but the folksy approach of tracks like One Microphone keep Angela firmly in touch with her roots.
Highly recommended release from one of our favourite artists ~ SCM
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