You know that old joke - 'I like both sorts of music - country AND western.' Catatonia's ex-singer tackles the full gamut of musical experience available in Nashville, Tennessee. She blends in American folk, a rich and seldom explored vein of emotion and experience. Cerys Matthews is the owner of a voice that cracks at the edges and has a magic effect on men of all shapes and sizes. Somewhere between a little-girl-lost vulnerability and a sexy growl, it carries through here in a way it never did on Catatonia's material. The arrangements are uncluttered and the instruments mostly acoustic. Despite the much trumpeted minimalistic production on this set, the recording is essential to catch the subtleties of her phrasing and it does. Chardonnay, the opener, is a paean in a cracked voice to the classic C&W tradition of drinking alone with an aching heart. Written by Roger Cook, it sounds like it could have been written for Crystal Gayle. The songs here are charming and the playing effortlessly artful, carrying Cerys along on a wave of guitars and mandolins. Caught In The Middle has a gently cheeky bounce and Only A Fool is lilting yet achingly lovelorn. A couple of swampy stompers dispel any fears of a one-note theme, then the bravest move - a cover of All My Trials. Joan Baez sang this but you probably know it better as part of Elvis' showstopping belter, An American Trilogy. Cerys succeeds in making it her own, a vulnerable, defiant folk hymn. With songs about drinking, getting caught in the rain, building a cabin on a mountain, saying goodbye, dying and seeing a promised land, the album has an array of hooks to catch the feelings and the delivery is waayyy better than we had any right to expect from the solo debut of a band vocalist.