July-August 2005
CAITLIN CARY & THAD COCKRELL
Begonias -Yep Roc

It's too tempting to make
references to the greats--Loretta &
Conway, George & Tammy,
Dolly & Porter--and there will be a lot of
that. The fact is, though, Caitlin Cary &
Thad Cockrell aren't worthy. Or, rather,
they deserve better, depending on how
you look at it.

In the 1950s and '60s, there were great
singers of universally resonant songs
who left a legacy known to even casual
fans of country music. They were, by
and large, country people themselves,
uniquely of their place and time. In
common with those great, Cary &
Cockrell have but this and it's no small
thing: They sing with scarred hearts,
and the voices the good Lord gave
them, about love, the lack of it, and all
the painful spaces in between.

Cockrell has vowed to "put the hurt
back into country," and in that,
Begonias succeeds. But it's loaded with
ringers, too -- the silkily seductive soul
of the Percy Seldge hit "Warm and
Tender Love"; the subtly electronic pop
of the Glenn Campbell-like "Something
Less Than Something More"; the hooky
rock of "Second Option", which is the
new best song Whiskeytown never made.
Vocals are intimate, immediate and
intentionally under-rehearsed to capture
and edge of freshness. And the influence
of intervening decades, particularly
the '70s, is everywhere.

Cary, formerly of Whiskeytown and with two acclaimed solo albums to her credit, remains just a little bit indie punk while rendering sweet and elastic harmonies reminiscent of the Everlys, as on "Something About Me", or Gram & Emmylou, as on "Two Different Things". Cockrell is a little bit gospel, a scion of a family full of Baptists ministers. His clear tenor, in roughly the same range as Cary's alto, rasps and cracks with expressive effect through the heartache and bewilderment of the album's more wrenching lyric passages.

Cary & Cockrell wrote nearly all the songs together, but Cockrell's influence is strongest in the lyrics' straightforward simplicity. "Please Break My Heart", for instance, could be a Harlan Howard hit for Patsy Cline. Simple Catch phrases anchor the choruses of these songs, and they capture instantly recognizable circumstances and emotions.

"Conversations About A Friend" could be heard in any bar after work (and it features a delightful, contextual reference to Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Me"), and "Party Time" is a classic Saturday night drinkin' and dancin' affair. The back-to-back "Whatever you Want" and "Don't Make It Better, Make It Over" perfectly circle the ambiguous nature of relationship tension; it's the theme that ties all these tracks together.

While Cary & Cockrell don't resurrect the great duets of country music, they have given us a record those giants could not have, one with a record of those giants could not have, one with deep reverence for iconic forbears, tempered with the experience of recent history and contemporary reality.
--Linda Ray