Not the Tremblin Kind Import
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
 A lovely new voice and a great CD, June 29, 2001
I discovered Laura Cantrell in a cab of all places - the local progressive station the driver had on played 'Churches on the Interstate' and I could not get the song out of my head. Unfortunately, I hadn't quite caught her name, but some creative searching on Amazon led me right to her. It has been a long time since I've found a singer or CD as engrossing and exciting as Laura Cantrell, and I certainly hope she finds the wide audience she deserves.On my first listen to Not the Tremblin' Kind I loved Laura's voice and enjoyed the songs, but I didn't fully appreciate the strengths of the CD until I'd listened to it several times over. Songs that at first sounded similar actually differ significantly in their tone, melody, lyrics and style. From the opening cover of Not the Tremblin' Kind - which she makes totally her own - through a variety of covers and originals, with highlights such as Do You Ever Think of Me and my favorite, Churches on the Interstate, Laura exhibits a wide range of style in a relatively narrow niche. Part country, part folk, part 'singer-songwriter' this is a terrific album and Laura a unique talent.It's easy to compare her to a lot of different singers - Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, a pinch of Emmylou and so on - but what I like about Laura - and all these women - is that despite whatever characteristics they share, they each have a unique style. For anyone interested in quality music in which lyrics, melody, 'background' music and instruments, presentation and tone are all equally important, this is the CD for you. It's been a long time since I've found a new 'discovery' as exciting and worthwhile as Laura Cantrell - she's not to be missed.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Prettiest Voice, Savvy Understated Backing Band, April 22, 2001
I've been listening closely to all types of music for 40 years, and at this point there are very few new voices that I find worthy or remarkable. Laura Cantrell is one of those rare performers that I listen to every day. On first listen, the arrangements seem simple and the vocals pleasant but almost flat. On closer examination, you'll hear the restraint, the nuance, and the sheer musicality of this material. Her voice is clear, bright, expressive, and honest. The tunes are first cut, especially the fun pop "Do You Ever Think of Me?" (sounds like the 1965 George Harrison on guitar), the aching beauty of "Two Seconds" and a tune she penned, "Queen of the Coast." Like other reviewers, I love Kitty Wells and Lucinda WIlliams; right now, Laura beats them both. MY eight year old daughter likes Britney Spears and Back Street Boys (both harmless treacle) but I play this in the car and she listens, sings along, and loves it. Intelligent country music.
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Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Beautiful Music, January 1, 2006
BBC DJ John Peel called her first album, Not Tremblin' Kind "my favorite record of the last 10 years and possibly my life." This has intelligent, understated, nuanced singing. Though a good composer, she is almost unsurpassed as an interpreter. Her Tremulous voice reaches out and inhabits every song, and she bends the note perfectly to fit the emotion and the word. Yes, like Kitty Wells, but with a little plain-folk Mother Maybelle Carter thrown in. You need this and her second CD -- they are of a whole. I like her third, "Hummingbird" too, though it's more pop oriented.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 No-frills Americana, January 6, 2005
Although Laura Cantrell comes from Nashville, she is as far removed musically from rhinestone cowboys and saccharin strings as she is geographically, based as she is in Brooklyn NY. This is no-frills Americana country music, following in the wake of the Byrds and Emmylou, and is a gem of a record.
Laura modestly includes only four of her own songs on the album, though two of them are the highlights of the album for me, Churches Off The Interstate and Queen Of The Coast (no. 42 in the John Peel 2000 Festive 50), the latter said to be about Bonnie Owens, the yodelling country star who married Merle Haggard and took to the sidelines as his career took off. This album is about the songs, and many were discovered by Laura through her WMFU show Radio Thrift Shop, which she has broadcast from Jersey City NJ since 1993, and from friends and neighbours who are performers. The record has provided a platform for relatively unknown singers and writers, much as Emmylou Harris records have.
Not The Tremblin' Kind was written by George Usher, who had been in the Ministers Of Sound and in an earlier Minneapolis band called Beat Rodeo in the mid-eighties. Another member of Beat Rodeo was Dan Prater, who wrote Do You Ever Think Of Me, and was to play on Laura's next album. Joe Flood, who wrote Pile Of Woe, was in Mumbo Gumbo, while Two Seconds was a cover of Michigan band the Volebeats, and written by their singer Bob McCreedy. Laura's version made no. 27 in the Festive 50 in 2000. The Whiskey Makes You Sweeter comes from a well-regarded album by Amy Allison, daughter of Mose Allison, and Somewhere, Some Night is the work of Carl Montgomery, brother of Melba and Earl "Peanut" Montgomery, and co-writer of Six Days On The Road - a song I'd like to hear Laura Cantrell tackle. The other two songs were written by producer Jay Sherman-Godfrey (from World Famous Blue Jays), one in conjunction with Laura's husband, Jeremy Tepper, who runs Diesel Only Records.
The lack of pretension of Not The Tremblin' Kind lays it open to critical scrutiny as it doesn't hide behind over-glossy production and obfuscating arrangements, but it passes with flying colours thanks to solid performances, top class songs and a sympathetic producer
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The Nun's Priest's Tale, December 7, 2003
Reviewer: A music fan
This album sings itself from the heart of an intersate highway truck stop. Everything about this album (music, lyrics, voice, complexity, thinness) reminds me of a breakfast counter off the highway in Maryland where a chance encounter brought into conversation me, two women, a man with a big rig and a waitress with an unforgiving apron. Three hours and too much coffee later, we had all told our stories--none of them brilliant, none of them hopeless, all of them understandable, all of them human. Then we all went our separate ways, looking for whatever holy, blissful martyr our roads would let us meet. I'd recommend Laura Canterll precisely because she isn't flashy, pushy or phoney. She's just singing the country music I grew up listening to.
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Debut winner from Cantrell - 4 stars, April 12, 2003
Terrific debut from Cantrell who deserves all the success of fellow folkies Krauss, Gillian Welch, etc. Song after song puts a smile on your face. My three favorites are: Not The Tremblin' Kind, Little Bit of you and Two Seconds, although there isn't a bad one in the bunch. Her sophomore disc, When The Roses Bloom Again, is even better!
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