There can't be too many albums where songs about a demolition derby rub shoulders with one about washing the dishes. Rita Hosking pulls off this rare feat with her fourth album.
She is a singer-songwriter who has been described as a Californian girl with a mountain-music sensibility. Her voice and attitude are a cross between Suzie (Oh Susanna) Ungerleider and Nanci Griffith so is the type of country woman Bob Harris gushes over.
Of the first topic, she explains that "it was time to integrate the demo derby into my spiritual centre". The second is a somewhat forced metaphor comparing the breakability of dishes with our hearts on the basis that we live in the constant fear that both might one day fall and shatter - "some people keep their china locked away, while some prefer to use it every day".
The album was recorded in Austin, Texas and produced by Rich Brotherton who also plays guitars, and mandolin. Other musicians include members of Robert Earl Keen's band.
It opens with two "pretty love songs", the first (Something You Got) is written for her husband Sean Feder who plays banjo, Dobro and percussion on the album. The second (When Miners Sang) is in praise of the solid working class values of her father.
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Crash And Burn is the nearest thing to a title track. In this song, survival on the race circuit is compared with getting a thicker skin in life: "I figured out this derby stuff, tear it down to basics and you get tough".
Ballad For The Gulf Of Mexico doesn't work as well though since, although full of good intentions, she packs too many issues into one song; it covers war, the environment("gas guzzling cars"), unemployment, poverty, loss of dignity and greed ("rich men's lies").
How Many Fires is the album's centrepiece, a fierce song about a break up that starts as a wistful ballad and then opens out into a storming rock finale; she sings: "All acts of passion come at a price. It numbs down my heart to a cold block of ice".
Her songs are best when she sings from the heart and keeps things simple and, fortunately, most of the eleven tracks fall into this category.
Rita Hosking's Website
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