Reviewed by Harry Kaplan
This is the fourth of 12 installments reviewing nominees in each category of Dale Watson’s 2017 Ameripolitan Music Awards. Voting is now over for this year’s batch of nominees but we will carry on with the review until the event on February 15, 2017 with a look today at this year’s Outlaw Female nominees.
Jenny Don’t fronts the Portland, Oregon outfit named Jenny Don’t And The Spurs. Don’t has a very lovely voice and sings like Patsy Cline with the attitude of a punk rocker. Her songs are a mix of punk, rockabilly, and country. Definitely fits the outlaw country category well. Since 2013, Jenny Don’t And The Spurs have released two studio albums, a live album, and four singles.
Don’t let the name fool ya, Tommy Ash is all woman. And she is full of sas and attitude in the same spirit as her idols and mentors: Dwight Yoakam, Wanda Jackson, Buck Owens, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, and Dolly Parton. This Phoenix, AZ native is doing the genre proud. She not only sings the music, she lives the life.
Darci Carlson is a Seattle, WA native but you would think she is from deep in the heart of Texas or Tennessee because of her strong country voice and singing style. Definitely reminiscent of the ladies that reigned supreme in the 70s such as Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, and June Carter. Carlson is currently working on a follow up to her first album, Death Bed. She likes to sing about drinking, love, and breaking up.
Sissy Brown grew up in Oklahoma and is a classically trained musician. Even with this training, Sissy went back to her country roots. She moved to Spokane, Washington and joined some rockabilly outfits. Sissy then moved to Los Angeles where she began to develop her own sound. Her music is emblazoned with her strong and beautiful voice. Her subject matter is the typical outlaw country themes such as drinking, love gone wrong, and unrequited love.
Emily Nenni probably has the most vintage sound of all the five nominees. Nenni hails from Nashville, Tennessee and from her singing style, one can glean that she studied the singers that came before her. Not just studied, but emulated and built on their sound. Nenni writes her own music and has an uncanny ability to keep it real. Her music takes you back to a honky tonk in the 1960s.
The Outlaw Female category is a tough one. It is full of great singers that are worthy of the crown. This one is too close to call.