Kimberly M'Carver - M'carver, Kimberly : Hard Waltz

Kimberly M'Carver's Hard Waltz: Purist Country Songwriting, Brilliant Voice - Houston songwriter Kimberly M'Carver has a voice that will very gently knock you out. It's sort of a cross between Emmylou Harris and vintage Dolly Parton, with all the nuance of the former and the sweetness of the latter. M'Carver can sing clear and pure as a country spring, or turn up the vibrato at the end of a phrase for an especially heartbroken edge. True to it's title, most of her latest album Hard Waltz, is oldschool, purist country music, with several numbers in 3/4 time. Being a strong songwriter, M'Carver had no problem pulling together an amazing band to back her this time around, including but not limited to co-producer/guitarist Scott Neubert, singer Claire Lynch, Little Big Town bassist John Thomasson, GreenCards fiddler Eamon McLoughlin and Elvis Costello accordionist Jeff Taylor. Fans of hard country will love this. The title track opens the album with a lush bed of acoustic guitars and an accordion solo that hands off to a pennywhistle - it's very Emmylou with a little Celtic edge. M'Carver picks up the pace with the catchy newgrass tune Bliss Creek and then brings it down again with the sweet, sad waltz You Say That You're Leaving. 'Promises bend, souls they grow thristy and love stories end,' she laments before the gorgeous blend of fiddle and pedal steel kicks in on the chorus. Teardrops and Wine sounds like it's pretty self-explanatory, but it's not that simple, and the way M'Carver slides up to a note on the second chorus will give you chills. Rodeo Clown was inspired by M'Carver's second cousin, who is the genuine item - but the song casts the singer in the role of someone who's 'always there to pick you up when you're knocked down.' It's a neat twist. Devil or Fool, with it's slow-burning, blues-drenched slide guitar, makes a start contrast, taking it's inspiration from M'Carver's many trips to Sugar Land prison to visit her brother, who was in for drugs and a probation violation. It Never Gets Easy, a straight-up, backbeat country song with some memorable lead guitar, steel and fiddle work, ponders a frustrating relationship where 'the heat of your touch turned everything else cold.' Redemption, with it's resigned blend of country gospel and Tex-Mex, takes a haunting look at dead-end despair and alienation and draws inspiration from the suicide of M'Carver's first husband. It contrasts with the next track, There's Always Sorry, a make-up song set to electric highway rock with a sizzling, spiraling guitar lead. The album winds up with the gentle, jazz-tinged countrypolitan waltz Will You Show Me The Stars - dedicated to M'Carver's astrophysicist husband of the last 25 years - and the vivid, picturesque post-breakup ballad Another Goodbye waltz, something that Lucinda Williams would be proud to have written. M'Carver has several other purist albums to her credit and has toured with Jim Lauderdale; if she ever makes it up to NYC, you'll hear about it here. By delarue, New York Music Daily Hard Waltz ... This is M'Carver's fourth collection of original material and her first in 12 years, and it can only enhance her climb to recognition. Her music is born of the best of country songwriting: honest, personal tales never clogged with easy sentiment or self-pity. The album opens with a title track that will convince you of M'Carver's prodigious talent; Celtic-flavored with a haunting accordion and whistle accompaniment, it will linger with you long after the fade-out. 'Devil or Fool' was inspired by the visits she paid to her brother in prison. The album's standout, 'You Say That You're Leaving,' is a genuine tearjerker. We've all been there; we just need someone to tell it and sing it right. The album closes with a good ole country waltz, 'Another Goodbye,' leaving the listener grateful for their time with M'Carver. One can only hope that the fame and regard due her is finally ushered in by this stellar set of originals. Robert Myers, Elmore Magazine Hard Waltz (4 stars) - With a timbre tailor-made for hymns on Sunday and a quaver decidedly Parton-esque, Houston-based Kimberly M'Carver's vocals are a match made in Country Heaven for her true-to-the-roots lyrics and melodies. Strong tracks on this, her fourth release, include 'Teardrops and Wine,' 'You Say That You're Leaving,' and 'It Never Gets Easy.' First-rate fretwork is abundant, much of it from Ms. M'Carver's co-producer, multi-instrumentalist Scott Neubert. Accordion provides a Celtic touch on the title track and adds to the charm of an unexpected pop ballad, 'Will You Show Me The Stars,' co-written by sideman Eric Korb. Duane Verh, Roots Music Report Hard Waltz (4 stars) - Back in 1989, the intent of Music City was to focus on Austin musicians but that didn't even last the first year because country folk singer-songwriter Kimberly M'Carver came in from Houston, knocked me out with both her live show and Breathe the Moonlight (Philo, 1990, incidentally Rounder's last LP) and claimed the cover of #11. M'Carver has cast a similar spell over so many music writers, Texan, national and international, all competing with each other to up the superlatives, that if you were to go by her press kit, you'd assume that she's a star you've somehow overlooked. However, while they think well of her in Houston, M'Carver never broke through like, say Nanci Griffith, with whom she's often, though I think erroneously, compared (in my 1990 story, I quoted another singer-songwriter as saying, 'M'Carver sings better, writes better, looks better and is a nicer person than Nanci Griffith,' and that still sounds about right). This may, as I've seen speculated, be partly due to the fact that, over 23 years, she's only put out four albums, the last 12 years ago, but the upside of this rather sparse discography is that they're all superb, especially Cross The Danger Line (2001) and this one, on both of which she and Scott Neubert took over production, with Neubert also playing sensational mandolin, acoustic, electric and slide guitars, pedal steel and dobro, along with harmony vocals (Claire Lynch does some lovely harmony work too). Most review of M'Carver's albums, including mine, start with The Voice, several writers giving her an edge over Emmylou Harris let alone Nanci Griffith, then move on to her intimate lyrics (a few to the red hair and green eyes), this time all original, with a couple of co-writes, a double whammy that, if nothing else, shows how little influence an entire regiment of music writers has on the real world. John Conquest, 3rd Coast Music M'Carver's fourth album, it's a no-frills, perfectly produced, largely acoustic set that should fit comfortably on your trad-country shelf next to Dolly Parton ... absent of any pickup trucks, shotguns, or crossover-pop ambitions, Hard Waltz requires little more than M'Carver's pristine soprano to carry it home ... Chris Gray, Houston Press There are enough well-crafted, real country tears on Kimberly M'Carver's new Hard Waltz to fill the late-night dance floor at one of those old honky-tonk halls out on the edge of town ... Tom Geddie, Buddy Magazine Anyone who's ever experienced the country folk of Houston singer-songwriter Kimberly M'Carver knows that she believes in symbolism. For her, train whistles are synonymous with loneliness, and a city like 'Santa Fe' drowns with spirituality ... On the cover of her latest album, 'Cross The Danger Line,' she has stunning long hair the color of a red fox and green eyes. In person her stare is even more penetrating ... one realizes how thin the line is between stardom and the search for it. A listen to 'Cross The Danger Line' makes one wonder why some promoter hasn't helped her cross it ... Combining a mix of Nanci Griffith country-folk modernism and Loretta Lynn blue-collar strength, M'Carver has forged a collection of songs and performances that most country artists would love to call their own ... [Brent] Truitt's flutteri