Ever notice there aren’t many female-oriented songs about not being tied down? I’m sure there are, but they don’t come to mind like Free Bird or Ramblin’ Man. I suppose Thelma & Louise gives the XX perspective for the movie genre, but what about something you can sing along to? Kathryn Caine, on her latest work, Down Home Girl, aims to fix that with the opening track, Wheels. From there she goes into Far Away where she proclaims she’s “never been one for settling down” because “I don’t think I could survive”.
Kathryn is certainly not a one trick pony, though. There are a couple of good waltzes on the album, Where Did All the Time Go and The Dream. Honeyhill is a good old rock and roll song. The Fall is almost a pop song. It reminds me of Terri Hendrix, but it could also be Taylor Swift if you’re a couple of generations younger than me. Workin’ Man could be a Grateful Dead tune, complete with minor chords and twangy leads with jazzy rhythms.
One of the things Kathryn proves with Down Home Girl is in this day and age you don’t need a big name producer to put out a solidly recorded, engineered and produced effort. Between Kathryn herself and James McLaughlin, who also plays drums, this a clean, bright recording with nothing to hide or muddle the excellent musicianship. Foremost of which is the guitar and mandolin playing of Andy Thacker, but the entire band holds it own on every single song.
With Thanksgiving here tomorrow, many of you will be spending some quality windshield time with nothing but your thoughts and some good music. And even of those of you with kids may be blessed with the saviour known as personal DVD players. Down Home Girl is full of good driving tunes so download it now, add it to your library, and hit the road with best wishes for a good holiday from all of us at Twangville.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.