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"It's About Time"
Twenty-five-year-old Julie Reeves is
the personification of modern Nashville. Born in eastern Kentucky,
a stone's throw from the hill country where poverty and isolation
formed the bedrock of old-style hillbilly music, she's able to
imbue the Dolly Parton-like "If Heartaches Had Wings"--about
a young mother trapped in a marriage with a worthless sot--with
honest Appalachian pathos. But she also grew up as a middle-class
child raised on mainstream pop. As such, this big-voiced newcomer
knows how to rock (check out the irresistible first track, "Trouble
Is a Woman"), and demonstrates on the midtempo teaser "Do
You Think About Me," in which she makes an old lover crazy
with regret, that she's got the emotional depth to sell almost
anything. It's About Time is mostly a radio album--packed with
hooks and potential hits--but Julie Reeves comes across as a
real talent, an adaptable and believable singer who can survive
whatever trend Nashville decides to sell this week. --Alanna
Nash |
