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Make no mistake y’all, Laura Bell Bundy is poised to be a major country music superstar. And I won’t try to pretend that I’m not tickled pink about it. You see, I think of Laura as my personal hometown success story in two different ways. As children, growing up in beautiful Lexington, KY (me, um, a few years her senior), she performed with some of the same local theatre groups I did, and then moved on to conquer off-Broadway in the hit show Ruthless, while still a very young girl.
Then, years later when I had come to think of our lovely NYC as my new hometown, she triumphed on the Great White Way with a supporting role in the original company of Hairspray and then with her Tony-nominated starring role in Legally Blonde.
It’s taken a little time (with me as well) to come full-circle and embrace our roots. But, as my wise mother Patsy always says, “You can’t help it! It’s in your blood!” Just as impressive (if not more) than Laura’s beauty and spot-on embrace of traditional country style, is the fact that she co-wrote all but one of the twelve tracks in this collection! And she’s not just whistling “Dixie,” either. These are the real deal, with just the right combination of tried-and-true Bluegrass leanings and up-with-the-times tough girl meanings. While she may wail and pine for her guy on the softer tunes, she is fully in charge on the up-tempo numbers, telling her man exactly where he can get off! That is, if she ever let him onboard to begin with!
The disc is cleverly divided into two distinct sections: “Achin’,” being the cry in her beer/heart on her sleeve songs and “Shakin',” which finds Laura Bell in total control, not letting any man get the best of her. All of the songs have the distinctive stamp of a fine songwriter with a singular style, particularly the gorgeous “Cigarette,” a gem that I have no doubt Patsy Cline would have wanted to wrap her silky vocals around. Other stand-outs include “Curse the Bed,” detailing the destruction of that certain piece of furniture where love was found and lost and the haunting “Homecoming Queen,” which finds the singer solemnly celebrating the things she has instead of dwelling on the things she has not. On the more rocking side of things the first single from the album, “Giddy on Up” playfully celebrates the gal kicking her guy to the curb after a discovered indiscretion and the infectious “If You Want My Love” finds Bundy urging the stud in the bar to step if up if he wants any of her loving! Closing out the proceedings is the inspirational “Everybody” which spells out matter-of-factly what we all desire (“everybody needs someone they can love”).
Laura’s fine voice is a heartbreaking tool of Southern tears one moment and the warning growl of a lioness about to attack the other. Proud as I can possibly be of my hometown girl, I have only one thing left to say, Carrie Underwood watch your back, there’s a new Sheriff in town!
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