Kimmie Rhodes is artist who seems to fall into the limbo-land category of a musician's musician, destined for more acclaim among her peers than the public at large.
During her 30 year career the almost too numerous to mention artists who have covered her songs include Willie Nelson, Trisha Yearwood, Waylon Jennings, Mark Knopfler and Emmylous Harris.
For her fifteenth album, recorded in her home studio in Austin, she promises us a "poetic voyage from dark to light", although there is significantly more light than shade.
Her sweet voice makes this almost inevitable; it's hard to imagine her singing anything too pessimistic.
In these songs she doesn't stray far from the middle-of-the-road so the 'darkness' never amounts to more than a little self-doubt and uncertainty.
In the opening and title track, flying is a familiar metaphor for escape / freedom and a"blackbird circling in the winter sky trying to fly" on the next song (Back Again) signifies being stuck with a memory of a lost love, remembering "the way it was before it never was".
To pull us safely clear of these melancholy reflections, several uncomplicated songs (Like Love To Me ; Turnin' My World ; Luh Luh Love) serve to reassure us of the healing power of romance.
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One By One and Start Saying Goodbye are like gentle lullabies, the kind of tunes Neil Young comes out with in his more sentimental moments.
New Way Through finds her in an impasse looking skywards for hope and inspiration. and finding a cloud that looks like Elvis "only thinner".
The strongest of her songs is Unholy Ghost, in which unwelcome thoughts are personified as malicious spirits "lounging uninvited in the doorway".
The best track, however, is the one cover song; a fairly straight version Donovan's Catch The Wind featuring a duet with Joe Ely.
There's a soothing twanginess to all the songs and, while the album is unlikely to be her long-awaited breakthrough release, it does provide further proof that she has an ear for a good tune.
Kimmie Rhodes' Website
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