2012-04-06
Amber Rubarth won the NPR Mountain Stage New Song Contest for the opener on this record, "Letter from My Lonlier Self" and it is worth the accolade, smartly written and well-performed. Rubarth has a very straightforward, no-nonsense style, reminiscent of Ani De Franco and Amy Rigby. Her heart's on he sleeve and she delivers it directly. There are couple of nice duos here, "City Starts to Bloom" and "Mirror" (the latter with Jason Mraz). One of my favorites on the disc is the jazz-tinged "Novocaine." She must have one of the most interesting pre-musician careers of anyone in our WYCE library: she was a chainsaw sculptor in Nevada before giving up that lucrative line of work for singer-songwriter. Michael J. 04/12 F-Singer-SongwriterThe opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.