Love and Circumstance

the theme of the album is love and circumstance, and carrie does a fine job of selecting and sequencing the song cycle, choosing pieces from the public doman (well, actually her father, david's, re-write of a traditional folk song), living and deceased legends (merle haggard, townes van zandt, hank williams), some of the best contemporary songwriters (buddy miller, lucinda williams, richard thompson, gillian welch, john hiatt), the new wave of indie folk (m. ward) and latino (polo urias popularized a song of carrie's great aunt). among the many highlights are the opening track, "big love," a more optimistic version than john hiatt's bluesy original, which sets the tone for the album, as carrie sings it from a woman's perspective, "i'm a full-grown woman and i'm looking for a big love..."; and a glorious version of buddy miller's "wide river to cross".