Audra Connolly is not a woman to rush into things. She grew up with a passion for music yet waited until finishing college before taking up acoustic guitar seriously. (This despite having graduated in piano performance from Boise State University).
In 2003, she took the plunge to play in front of a live audience for the first time but has waited 6 years before releasing her first album at the age of 29. "I didn't feel like I was ready for a long time, and I wanted to have more of a backlog so I would have songs to choose from", she says.
Despite her classical training, her musical inspirations are free thinking folk heroines such as Joni Mitchell and Ani DiFranco. Like those singers, she chiefly writes autobiographical songs about the ups and downs of love and friendship.
On the opening track (Eternal Youth), she declares "Only honesty will set you free", an uncompromising stance which sets the tone for 10 songs of soul searching.
By the end, you get the distinct impression of a strong minded woman prepared to let the heart rule the head but who also knows the risks you run from being too open. On the title track she confesses "I can be too much sometimes / I wear my heart on my sleeve".
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She's not a woman prepared to settle for second best either. On 'Diversions', she tells of meeting a succession of partners who despite being "good men of heart and soul" never seem to be enough.
The closing track (Love Unconditional) is the most serene declaration of true love but then you realise that it's a song about her dog . At least, I sincerely hope it is with lines like "soft little creature looking up with vacant eyes - to you I'm immortal and stand to giant size"!
Audra is accompanied throughout by her brother Aaron on electric guitar but the playing only becomes truly interesting when more unusual instruments are deployed, as when Aaron plays African drums (djembe & doumbeck) on Diversions or when Laura Davis plays bassoon on Thinking Of You.
Too often, the overly conventional arrangements mean that the tunes glide by without displaying the distinctive character they deserve.
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