The Maudlin Years

At first, Amy Allison’s music sounds like a parody of honky-honk country — she savors the details of heartache just a little too knowingly. The fact that she calls her band the Maudlins offers a clue to her intentions. But a close listening to The Maudlin Years (her 1996 debut) reveals this singer/songwriter’s reverence for country’s traditions, even if she takes them to disquieting extremes. Singing in a nasal-heavy alto, Allison (who happens to be the daughter of jazz great Mose Allison) confesses her sins with the slightest of smiles on her lips. Songs like “Cheaters World” and “The Whisky Makes You Sweeter” carry a payload of self-recrimination that transcends any possible irony. She has fun with old-school Nashville scenarios, taking the domestic pathos of a Tammy Wynette to the edge of total despair in “You Just Don’t Know What It’s Like” and “Holding The Baby.” Even better is “Garden State Mall,” a portrait of a hopeless shopaholic. Allison can also dish out a put-down with style, as “Put It In A Box” shows. Throughout, Amy’s band plays achieves a sound at once shimmering and mournful. This is smart, stinging alt-country for connoisseurs of a damn good cry.