Jane Kramer calls Break & Bloom "a collection of lived stories" and her bitter sweet songs feel like missives from the endlessly fraught world of personal relationships.
Now based in Portland, Oregon, Kramer originates from North Carolina where she spent six years as a founder member and "anchor voice" of The Barrel House Mamas quartet.
Her debut solo work is a mature and well sequenced set of tunes which begins with her wishing she was drunk in Georgia and ends with a lively take on a traditional gospel tune How Far Am I From Canaan.
David Jacobs-Strain plays slide guitar on both these tracks and is indicative of the high quality of musical support throughout.
For instance, Tim Ribner's fine playing on the piano ballad The Devil Don't Want makes this one of the album's standouts; the album title comes from a line in this song.
Nobody's Woman Tonight and Hold My Whisky make it plain that alcohol has been a regular source of solace for the singer although she's not sozzled enough to lose sight of the fact that she has One Precious Life which needs to be made as shiny and new as possible.
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Nevertheless, any underlying optimism is tempered by the realisation that the line between breaking and blooming is often a fine one.
On Mourning Dove she empathizes with a friend who committed suicide dismissing all the "shallow talk" of living with demons and declaring "I understand you had to go".
I get the impression that Kramer subjects herself to a fair degree of self scrutiny to the point that lines in That Muddy Water are not merely abstract reflections about female singers: "A pretty girl can sing a pretty song all day long till kingdom come, but it don't mean nothing when she can't face herself at the end of the day".
The gypsy tango of Any Way You Like, Child provides a lively diversion from the soul searching but this only serves to confirm that slower, sad songs are where her true strengths lie.
Jane Kramer's website
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