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August 18 - 25, 2000

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*** Dolly Varden

THE DUMBEST MAGNETS

(Evil Teen)

Chicago's Dolly Varden are the Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris-style dueting team of husband and wife Stephen Dawson and Diane Christiansen, a couple of symbiotic songwriters who first cut their teeth as members of the late-'80s Chicago country-punk outfit Stump the Host. A sense of spacious, self-assured ease graces the dozen top-shelf, country-rock tunes on their third album. Dawson's nimble, pliant voice cannily combines the breezy ardor of Freedy Johnston ("Be a Part") with the devotional blue-eyed soul of Tupelo Honey-era Van Morrison ("Simple Pleasure"); meanwhile the dusk-colored hues of Christiansen's voice, which splits the difference between Kristin Hersh and Margo Timmins, flow like a dark, sure stream through understated tracks like "Progress Note" and "Some Sequined Angel." In the end, though, it's the way these two craft songs to suit their voices that makes Magnets so appealing and exceptional -- not to mention the refined musicianship that drives bittersweet ballads like "Along for the Ride" and amped roots-rockers like "I Come to You."

-- Jonathan Perry

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