BBC Review
One has to wonder - did she give all her best songs away?
An album like this - and there are many - makes my job tough. If it's a great record, that's great. If it's rubbish, that's okay too. But Honeysuckle Sweet is a mediocre album to the core.
Despite the press release droning on about Patsy Cline, Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs and The Band, this is not strictly a country album. There's nothing particularly 'rootsy' about Jessi Alexander's voice or her songs. She certainly sings well enough and has written songs for Trisha Yearwood and Patty Loveless, but one has to wonder - did she give all her best songs away? There's precious little here to raise the heart rate.
On the whole, her voice has an MOR-soul feel to it, sometimes disappearing down the back of her throat, Celine Dion-style. It's a little like listening to polished glass, especially on "Everywhere" and the big ballad "Canyon Prayer".
The album kicks off with the insipid nostalgia of "Honeysuckle Sweet" yearning for mom and pop on the back porch. Elsewhere she seems to want to mine Sheryl Crow's territory, but this too is unconvincing. Songs like "I'd Run Right Back To You" and "Can You Make It Feel Right" just sound sappy.
"Make Me Stay Or Make Me Go" is the closest thing to roots here, with its fiddle, harmonica and accordion accompaniment, but hopes are dashed again when "This World Is Crazy" comes in, despite some lovely tremolo guitar and a great string arrangement.
If you want to hear an excellent soul/country/blues crossover, go out and buy I Am Shelby Lynne with the peerless Bill Bottrell on production duties.
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