Lera Lynn “Have You Met Lera Lynn?”

Freeworld, 2012

There’ll be blue’s chords over the white cliffs of Dover (when she comes to the UK later this summer)

• There’ll also be some jazz chords, country chords and even some rock when this Georgia native brings her sultry smoky sounds to the UK. ‘Good Hearted Man’ heads straight for country rock central with its cow walking bass line and whiskey spitting guitars.

• More often though she reminds me of Josh Haden’s Spain (who have a new record out this month) with a slow motion sultry late night cocktail of blues and jazz, it’s music that puts a suit on before going out to get drunk, see ‘Whiskey’ for 100% proof.

  Excuse me if I get some titles mixed up, those advertised don’t match those on the record, one song that does stick out is ‘Bobby, Baby’ a moody dark nihilistic song, the kind of film noir narrative that finds the protagonist going down the wrong road, going the wrong way with a moody soundtrack that’s as ominous as thunderclouds. It says much for Lynn that her cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘I Tried to Leave You’ doesn’t stand out, instead it slots into the flow of songs basking in the crepuscular atmosphere. I can’t help thinking that I’d prefer to see her in some dark basement than on a festival stage, though if she concentrated on the rockier songs like ‘Gasoline’ it could get interesting.

  She really inhabits the songs and convinces totally as a songwriter, the songs are full of atmosphere and turns of phrase that enliven the age old stories of love gone bad. Judging by this debut I would guess that Lera might be around for nearly as long as Vera.