Good Southern Girl

At only 19 years of age, New Orleans singer/fiddler/songwriter Amanda Shaw is already on her fourth album with Good Southern Girl, which might go some way toward explaining how an artist so young seems to have already developed such a deep sense of musical history. Produced by Trina Shoemaker, who is best known for her work with Sheryl Crow, the album glides seamlessly through a number of rootsy styles while still maintaining a touch of the Crescent City throughout. In addition to her precocious fiddling skills, Shaw shows herself to be an accomplished composer, alternating between her own tunes and material from a broad spectrum of other sources. The self-penned title track kicks things off with a feel-good vibe and lyrics full of local color, as Shaw sings of "magnolia nights" and heading "towards the parish line." She dips into the Lynyrd Skynyrd catalog for "Mississippi Kid," giving the blues-rocking stomp a particularly swampy touch. Zydeco king Clifton Chenier gets a nod as Shaw tackles his "Johnny Can't Dance," with her fiddle standing in for the accordion. She lends a Southern rock feel to the funk-rock-Cajun blend of "Git Fiddler," a nugget from Jefferson Starship's Papa John Creach era, and digs deep into New Orleans soil with the traditional Cajun instrumental "Blues de la Frontier." Shaw even gets Celtic for a moment, on "The Meek Maids Reel." The only real misstep on Good Southern Girl is appropriately shunted to the album's final slot, as Shaw delivers a semi-rap over the contemporary R&B groove of the ill-fitting "Yes Yes Girl." Beyond that, growing up in public seems to be suiting Shaw just fine. ~ J. Allen, Rovi