AWmusic

Well, I hope you all had a very happy holiday and that you are now sitting in front of a stack of CD’s trying to decide what to play first. Me? In spite of leaving hints everywhere and outright telling people what I wanted, I got no CD’s. The horror! Instead, I have to content myself with listening to the new music that lands in my inbox and quite frankly most of it is better than or as good as anything you will find these days.

Take Daisy McCrackin for instance. Her debut EP, The Rodeo Grounds is as good a piece of folk music as you will find these days. The inevitable comparisons will be made to Joni Mitchell, Beth Orton, Rickie Lee Jones, Suzanne Vega, Nancy Sinatra or early Izza (formerly Jane Siberry). For sure McCrackin has a talent for writing intelligent, straightforward lyrics. There is no subtlety or coquetry here, she tells it like it is. A refreshing change. She holds nothing back, from telling her married lover how to lie to his wife (Tell Her) to telling her current love that he has to step up to the plate and put his money where his mouth is (Say You Do). The songs on this EP are each exquisite little short stories collected together to make a novel of love and loss.

McCrackin did an amazing thing on this EP, she managed to write five original and unique pieces of artistry in a genre that is so old I started to wonder if there was anything fresh left in it. There are only so many ways you can say that your lover broke your heart before it gets repetitive and yet McCrackin managed to come up with novel lyrics set to arrangements that are timeless. Her voice is at times thin and frail sounding but it only punctuates the sensitivity of the material. “Anguish is my second language, drowning in my little pond echoing with perfect pitch. Now I’m here and now I’m gone.” (Mermaid’s Daughter) Her phrasing and delivery are perfect, she draws you into her little world with the simplicity and honesty of her voice.

McCrackin, as well as this release, has a soundtrack album for the movie Til Death Do Us Part in which she also appears. She has appeared in such movies as Halloween: Resurrection and 3000 Miles To Graceland as well as episodes of Angel and Cold Case. It’s nice that she has something to fall back on if this music thing doesn’t pan out but somehow I don’t think she will need it, The Rodeo Grounds marks her as one of the most promising singer/songwriter’s out there right now. The frightening thing is that if her debut EP is this good, what will her next one be like?

You can find McCrackin on MySpace, Facebook, her website and The Internet Movie Database. You can buy The Rodeo Grounds from Amazon and iTunes. It is to be noted that my version of the EP had only five songs on it but the Amazon and iTunes version have six, Everything being left off mine.

Daisy McCrackin – Say You Do
Daisy McCrackin – Tell Her