O' Sister Thou Art Gifted

Cut Yourself a Switch (Thrill)

Catherine Irwin

By David Lilly

Have you ever been going about your own business when suddenly you were faced with one of your worst pet peeves? Suppose you had no options but to stride directly into it and deal with it. In doing so, you found yourself falling in love and extolling the sheer beauty of it.

Everyone who knows me knows I avoid country music as much as possible. HOWEVER, Catherine Irwin (of Freakwater) has recorded 50 minutes of such music, entitled Cut Yourself a Switch, which is way too good to ignore. Anybody who digs the O' Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack should embrace this with excited ears.

While I won't comment much on individual songs, the instrumentation throughout this disc is exquisitely rural, beautifully played and not a note is wasted. Irwin's voice alone ought to attract many, many listeners, as she is a truly gifted singer with an innately sexy voice.

Even for a non country-music fan like me, the music here is so well done that it picks right out of style and fiddles into class. I encourage not only Freakwater fans but other non-fans of the genre to give this disc at least one open-minded listen. Learn more at http://search.centerstage.net/music/whoswho/Freakwater.html