Cart(0 items)![]()
![]()
Enter a zip code
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 | |
| 10 | |
| 11 | |
| 12 | |
| 13 | |
| 14 | |
On this auspicious debut, North Carolina native singer-songwriter-pianist Donna Hughes gets vocal support from Alison Krauss (who has recorded Hughes's "My Poor Old Heart"), Rhonda Vincent, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Sonya Isaacs, and is backed by a formidable band featuring producer/lead guitarist Tony Rice, Rob Ickes (dobro), Sam Bush (mandolin), Mike Bub (bass), and Ron Stewart (fiddle), among others. These artists don't just show up for anyone, so attention must be paid. Indeed, even with these all-stars on her team, Hughes never loses the spotlight. Singing in a sturdy contralto with the slightest of nasal twangs, she hits the heart of each song dead on. Her filigreed piano stylings betray an intimate knowledge of Baptist hymns. As a writer, her lyrics cut deep into the marrow of the human experience, whether she's engaged in a tender, winsome reminiscence of her grandmother's instructive letters to her (the gentle shuffle "Letters") or torching an ex in a withering post-breakup reality check, "Not Anymore.” Amid these songs about family, home, and ne'er-do-wells comes a powerful account, sung so folksy but with palpable outrage, about the treatment of Native Americans in North Carolina, "Talking to the Wind." Slipping neatly into this potent mix is a shuffling bluegrass treatment of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," with Hughes giving it a discreet Appalachian tint that feels right. Making nary a misstep, Donna Hughes makes a helluva first impression. David McGee, Barnes & Noble