PIETA BROWN (Trailer)  •  Pieta Brown

A joy to behold and to be heard. A remarkable debut.

From the very first notes, I just wanted to lie down on the bed today and soak in the sensual femininity, the comfort of "Lullaby," the tender opener of this beautiful record. (When that changed in the next tune, I got back up and heated the coffee, and sat down to write.)

I've heard this impressive disc many times now, and have gotten a lot out of it. I recently saw the artist perform at The Basement in Nashville, where we do our monthly Puremusic shows. She has the delicate strong features and the slender form of a magazine model, and what seemed a very sweet and generous disposition. She was on the arm and under the wing of Bo Ramsey, axeman non pareil. Most of our readers will recognize Bo as the guitarist and coproducer of Pieta's famous father Greg Brown, and also of Lucinda Williams. I've never heard him play sweeter than this.

Bo mentioned to me that Pieta had only been playing the guitar for two years. Almost hard to believe, she played so ably, but then, she grew up around a lot of great musicians. My astute paramour noted that the artist had not fallen far from the tree as a songwriter -- that's quite a lot to say, since Greg is one of the best writers out there, in our opinion. But these just don't sound like anyone's first tunes. The artist's onstage demeanor was a little green, but charming nevertheless. The interplay between Pieta and Bo was a vignette unto itself, and very entertaining.

Besides some particularly good playing from Bo Ramsey, the singularly azure ambience of this recording was cast by bassist Rick Cicalo and drummer Steve Hayes. Sister Constie Brown cameos on background vocals, and Greg adds some banjo and vocals himself. One of our favorite drummers, Don Heffington, plays some additional skins and percussion, and Dave Moore drops in on button accordion.

Start to finish, we strongly endorse this undertaking. Another excellent recording from the Iowa upstarts Trailer Records. Check it out for yourself on the Listen page. And please, buy it here.

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