Maggie Brown,
Maggie Brown

Label: Riverwide Music
Year: 2004

(4½ out of 5)

After flirting with a music career in young adulthood, Maggie Brown chose small-town family life over the Nashville hustle. Problem was, she just couldn't shake the urge to perform.

Now in her 30s, this Louisiana native and former Salado denizen makes her recording debut with a series of remarkable Louisiana and Texas tales in the stunning Maggie Brown.

Brown opens with the growling Southern rock number "Forty Dollars": Forty dollars worth of Lyle Lovett / Twenty dollars worth of gas / Might not get her back to Texas / But she might outrun the past … Did you ever see that far off look in her eyes / Now don't you lie / Did you really think she'd stay with you 'til you die.

From the mocking declaration of independence in the opening track, Brown demurely segues into prim Southern darling mode in "I Like It." Next is the world-weary loneliness of "Full Moon over Dallas," with stellar dobro accents from Dan Dugmore.

The Sheryl Crow-like "Used Cars" features a return to the feisty Southern rock of "Forty Dollars": If I could sell myself on you and me / I could be wheeling, I could be dealing / I should be selling used cars.

"Jacob's Eyes" is a beautiful statement of a mother's simple love for and never-ending devotion to her son: He's just a kid, doesn't know about all the things / He's gonna have to learn about / In this crazy world / If I had just one good wish / I could think about what I missed, and what I have lost / What I could have been / But more than that, more than these / I wish I could see the world through Jacob's eyes.

"Black River" has choral echoes of "Good Friday" by the Black Crowes. "Nowhere to Go but Crazy" captures a woman trapped in a dead-end marriage, complete with mournful strings.

"Wasted" is another tune right at home in the Sheryl Crow catalog: I'm not gonna shake this / So if you're gonna be my weakness / Then hold me up, take the reins / If love was a drug, I'd be wasted / Feel you run through my veins.

From the co-dependant woman in "Wasted," Brown shifts to black-widow style seductress in the sultry "Mosquito Net," then back to a woman facing a loveless dead-end in "Shame," and then protective mother mode once again in the lullaby "Hush."

Brown finishes unveiling herself as a woman finally driven to pursue her relentless dreams of musical stardom in the closing number, "Looking Back": Hey, I ain't ashamed to come here like this / with the whole town watching me make a fool of myself / I've bet everything, and stand to lose it all / baby my pride's gone, and now I can fall.

While it's easy to draw comparisons to Sheryl Crow, or Bonnie Raitt, or Shelby Lynne, Maggie Brown stands in a class by herself.

Effortlessly blending bayou blues with Southern rock and Texas country, Brown makes a powerful artistic statement on this debut years in the making.

Buy: Lone Star Music, Amazon

November 11, 2004