Girls that Ache

Some guys love rock-n-roll chicks. Me, I more dig the alt-country girls that reside at the intersection of folk, country, blues, and rock-n-roll. If that’s your bag, here’s three artists you’re going to want to check out. Of course, if that’s really your bag, you’ll already know them.

Tift Merritt.
Her first album Bramble Rose (B +, 2002) is straight heart-break country. Her vocals are sexy and breathe-y, aching with a knowing hunger and vulnerability that matches the songs. The lyrics are Hemingway plain, perfect for country, with stand-outs being Trouble Over Me, Sunday (the best track), and Are You Still in Love with Me. Woven through all the songs is a desire for love and commitment with a realization that marriage isn’t probable (if possible). http://www.rhapsody.com/tiftmerritt/bramblerose

Merritt's second album Tambourine (A-, 2004) adds a shot of rock n roll to the cocktail, most notably on lead-off Stray Paper, Shadow in the Way, Late Night Pilgrim and stand-out Tambourine, a swinging, rocking, blues piano number saturated with sex. “I am your tambourine. Shake me with your love, shake me with your love, shake me with our love tonight,” she sings to some lucky dude. Still, it’s the ache on the slow songs Plainest Thing and Still Pretending that draw me back. “Barefoot in the kitchen laughing till you leave, when I'll be crying inside the door I close behind you, wishing you would stay. But we're still pretending and we're still wrong and I still can't tell my heart why I'm still alone.” http://www.rhapsody.com/tiftmerritt/tambourine

Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis.
You’ll know Rilo Kiley from the Grey’s Anatomy and John Tucker Must Die (although I’m not sure that will resonate with too many of our readers…) soundtracks. More Adventurous (B+, 2004) is the sometimes folk, sometimes pop album that put them on the map, with razor-sharp lyrics, an ear for a good hook, and vocals by Jenny Lewis full of wide-eyed guilt. Although a bit uneven, at their best they sum-up the longing for love and lack of hope that permeates the post-twenty-five single life. Lewis keeps both in tension in so-good-it’s scary “Portions for Foxes” (I keep on talkin’ trash, but I never say anything, and the talkin’ leads to touchin’ and the touchin’ leads to sex and then there is not mystery left. And it’s bad news.), “I Never” (I’m only a women of flesh and bone and I weigh too much (we all do), and I thought I might die alone), and “The Absence of God (“Folk singers sing songs for the working, baby. We’re just recreation for all those doctors and lawyers” and “You’re not happy but you’re funny, and I’m tripping over my joy, but I keep getting up again”). I’d buy the whole thing, but definitely download those three. http://www.rhapsody.com/rilokiley/moreadventurous

Jenny Lewis with the Thompson Twins. Rabbit Fur Coat (B-, 2005). Kiley’s lead singer wrote and sings lead on these, with alt-country duo Thompsin Twins adding backing vocals. Largely alt-country with folk and roots-rock touches, these songs lack the hooks of Kiley’s best songs, but with lyrics dealing largely with God and love that cut to the bone. The standouts are You Are What You Love and Traveling Wilbury’s cover Handle With Care. Download those two, then maybe pick up Happy and Born Secular. http://www.rhapsody.com/jennylewisandthewatsontwins/rabbitfurcoat
*Rilo Kiley has a new CD just out that I’ll review shortly. You can hear a couple tracks from it on their myspace.

Patty Griffin. 1000 Kisses (A 2002). Although Griffin has a number of albums, all good, out there, this is the masterpiece. A collection of haunting songs of love in its different iterations, none are wholly happy nor wholly sad. They are vignettes of torn people, lost love, death, failed promises, and guarded hope. You’ll know Long Road from the Elizabethtown Soundtrack (movie C+, soundtrack A). Buy the whole thing, but pay careful attention to Making Pies, Long Road, Nobodies Crying, Rain, Chief and Tomorrow Night. The stories are layered and will reward multiple listens. Favorite lyric: from Making Pies, a story of grief and hunger. “Thursday nights, I go and type down at the church with Father Mike. It gets me out and he ain’t hard to like. At all. Jesus stares at me in my chair with his big blue eyes and his honey-brown hair. And he’s looking at me way up there on the wall.”
http://www.rhapsody.com/pattygriffin/1000kisses