Country Music People, UK
Country Music People, UK
Tasmanian singer songwriter Ange Boxall now bases herself in London and has pulled together an impressive list of collaborators for her debut album. Part recorded at Konk Studios, London and Nashville's Fatherland Studios, Writing Letters brings together veteran Eagles and Linda Ronstadt writer JD Souther, Grammy winning bluegrass musician Jim Lauderdale, The Wrights and The Arlenes to share some of the credit.Lead track The Wrights co-write, Fool For Now is a radio friendly track with a catchy "I can give you what you want / Baby just show me how" beefed up by the twang of Adam Wright's electric guitar.
Loving Between The Lines has all the credentials of a typical Nashville-style country heartbreaker and sees her teaming up with Lauderdale to sing about a couple who can’t express their feelings to one another. Gonna Give It Up, the The Arlenes collaboration with Big Steve on harmonies, stays on the right side of country partly thanks to BJ Cole’s ethereal steel guitar.
Ange can deliver equally punchy tunes on her own as she proves on The Salt Plains. The album’s centrepiece is Lucky Day a delicate love duet with Souther.
Less successful are Electric Blue and Brigitte & Tuesday, the former a sleepy jazz-tinged love song, the latter a slow-moving story of “two skinny girls with glittery pink finger nails” who run away in search of a better life. The demonstrate her ability to perform a different style, but they’re both instantly forgettable.
Like Jewel or Tift Merritt, Ange ticks all the right boxes, long blonde-hair, as smile as wide as the Mississippi River and a pretty vocal style delivering songs about love and relationships. She’s easy on the eye and the ear, but I found myself hankering for something with a touch more grit and soul.
Alison Stokes, Country Music People, UK
