CAITLIN ROSE – OWN SIDE NOW

Not quite the Nashville sound I was hoping for with this debut album from the world’s most famous country music hub. At 23 ,Caitlin Rose is barely old enough to buy a bottle of bourbon, let alone develop that beaten-down country tone that her older contemporaries have taught her. Still, she sings with a melancholy that pays homage to those obvious influences of Dolly Parton and Emmy-Lou Harris. Her voice is pretty with an occasional country twang- kind of out of the blue like an expat who’s picked up an accent. Opening track shows her innocence with the pony-club lyrics of “I get knocked down when I’m learning to ride.” She’s less broken bones and more broken nails. But when she does belt it out, on the final track, I’m gonna ride, she really does sound great, like a young Patsy Cline. If only the whole album was like this, I could really get into it. Instead, the sound is a little too sluggish, like it’s melting on a record player in the sun.

** ½