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March 5 - 12, 1999

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*** Kelly Willis

WHAT I DESERVE

(Rykodisc)

What Kelly Willis deserves is a career explosion like Shania Twain's, but she's just not cheesy enough to be a country megastar. A truly gifted singer, Willis uses her unaffected vibrato to convey tremendous depth and vulnerability, as well as an inkling as to why she's spent the last decade label-hopping instead of chart-topping. She was signed to a record deal at age 21, but even the Nashville star-making machinery couldn't taint the pure, gorgeous ache in her voice, confine her to singing country music, or eradicate her good taste in songwriters.

What I Deserve, then, seems to be the album Willis has always wanted to make. Assembling a who's who of twang, including guitarists Mark Spencer (Blood Oranges), Chuck Prophet (ex-Green on Red), and Lloyd Maines (Richard Buckner), and authoring songs with Gary Louris (Jayhawks) and John Leventhal (Shawn Colvin), Willis broadens her own country-rock hybrid with a shot of vintage '60s soul, following in the footsteps of such genre-crossing trailblazers as Dan Penn (who co-wrote a song here) and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Handpicked covers by Nick Drake, Paul Westerberg, and Paul Kelly add to the album's eclecticism, it's Willis who links these songs with her remarkable, untarnishable voice.

-- Meredith Ochs
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