Laura Cantrell's fourth full-length,
Kitty Wells Dresses: Songs of the Queen of Country Music, reflects exactly what it is, a collection of covers associated with
Wells. It may seem unusual that, given the six years that have lapsed between brilliant
Humming by the Flowered Vine, that a canny songwriter like
Cantrell would issue an album (almost) exclusively of covers, until you hear it. Produced by
Mark Nevers,
Cantrell's top-flight cast of players includes
Chris Scruggs (
BR5-49,
M. Ward), multi-instrumentalist
Fats Kaplin (
Tom Russell,
Andrew Hardin,
Kane Welch Kaplin,
Paul Burch),
Paul Niehaus (
Calexico), and
BR5-49 frontman
Chuck Mead.
Cantrell wrote the title track, a beautiful, lilting, midtempo country song driven by acoustic guitar, bass, and fiddle; the protagonist is looking back on her youth after seeing a photograph of
Wells in a magazine in a black gabardine dress (which went against the dress code for female country performer sin the early '50s). She explains with requisite poetry and sparse elegance exactly why Wells is such a sacred figure in the history of country.
Wells scored with "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" in 1951, paving the way for
Patsy Cline,
Tammy Wynette,
Dolly Parton, and virtually every female artist who followed.
Cantrell follows this lovely song with nine covers of songs associated with
Wells, with a simple presentation that manages to convey
Wells' own plain-sung but emotionally smoldering delivery on topics that depicted love, sex, and heartbreak in a shockingly frank manner for the era. These include the better-known material like "....Honky Tonk Angels," readings of
Jimmy Work's "Making Believe," Zeke Clements' "Poison in Your Heart,"
Fred Rose's and Hy Heath's "I Gave My Wedding Dress Away,"
Wells' and
J.D. Loudermilk's "Amigo's Guitar," the
Anglin Brothers' and Johnny Wright's "One by One" (sung as a fine duet with
Mead), and the wrenching closer, "Searching for a Soldier's Grave," written by
Roy Acuff. A hit in 1956 for
Wells, it addressed the loss of American soldiers in WWII, but resonates in this version as a poignant reminder of the cost of war.
Cantrell's all-too-brief
Kitty Wells Dresses contains its object's sense of sophisticated vocal economy that still conveys the power of truth in the human heart with elegance and grace, making it a fitting tribute for all the right reasons. ~ Thom Jurek