Tia McGraff “Outside of the Circle” (Bandana 2005)

Reviewing is a kind of benchmarking exercise where your experience of the product gives you the knowledge with which to judge new records. In this case, female rootsy country rock has to be judged against the paradigmatic Lucinda Williams - unfair maybe but there has to be some quasi-objective measure to counter the subjective opinion of the reviewer. So how does this measure up? Musically it is adequate - rockers, ballads and mid-tempo - the vocals are mostly good and exhibit sweetness, subtlety and power, with some tendency on the slower ones to over-emote. Song-writing is solid if unadventurous, formulaic, traditional and sometimes too Nashville (think of the synthesised (?) strings on the big schmaltzy ballad ‘Rest on Me’). More tracks like the simple fiddle driven ‘Life Lines’ would push up the marks.

Date review added:  Saturday, May 28, 2005
Reviewer:  DC
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  Tia McGraff web site