Bosque Brown’s lead vocalist, Mara Lee Miller, doesn’t have a conventionally beautiful voice. In the group’s sophomore effort, Baby, she often comes across rougher than what you would expect from a studio-cut album. However, like a finely aged whiskey, the quality of Miller’s intonation doesn’t come from pure distillation, but rather the imperfections deliberately added into the chemistry for a fuller flavor. Where a Leslie Feist, for instance, sounds like she has been in voice lessons since shortly after leaving the fetal stage, Miller has largely ignored the orthodox pitch perfection of contemporaries in favor of an unpolished dusty twang. And her voice is far more interesting for it.

Baby is a collection of 13 uncut diamonds that are very much rooted in the Alt/Country tradition of Miller’s native Texas (the closest comparison I can think of would be fellow Lone Star Jolie Holland). Where Bosque Brown’s debut and follow up EP were minimalist, Baby is accomplished through the addition of keys and backup vocals a more layered sound while still retaining the solitude of Miller’s lyrics. “Train Song,” for instance, utilizes both Miller’s voice as well as that of her sister Gina Milligan, all over a bouncy piano and drums beat. It’s one of the more upbeat tunes on the record as opposed to the melancholy “Texas Sun” which features pedal steel so muted it sounds like its being played on another planet. The balance between happy and sad still tilts overwhelmingly towards the latter, but that, more than anything, is pure Country tradition (at least it used to be). The literally on and off song “On and Off” (it reappears in three stages throughout the album) is a great example of heartbroken songs can be starkly gorgeous. In the completely a capella ballad, Miller’s only accompaniment is her sister’s equally evocative delivery.

photo by Annie Gunn

Though the jazz tinged “Went Walking” is probably my favorite, I’ll spare you the details of going into every song. Suffice it to say that Baby is an Alt/Country album for the modern age: fusing in Blues, Jazz, and Folk influences without ever losing sight of Country’s hard-livin’ twang. It’s also a remarkably even record; with the only notably out of place tune being the piano driven poppiness of “This Town” (and not really that noticeably out of place at that). In an era when Country music seems to be splitting either towards pop star exhibitionism or guitar driven “dad rock,” Bosque Brown goes down a less heavily trodden path.

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