Forget all those bands with a new slant on country: McHone is from Austin, Texas, and she’s playing country as it should be played. You get fiddle, steel guitar and lyrics about broken hearts (hers) and no-good men (also hers, sadly).

With Maybe They’re Just Really Good Friends you get the picture from the title, “Maybe they’re just really good friends / but if not I guess I’ll just pretend”, whereas Dram Shop Gal sees her with a bad ‘un: “He said be my gal, my soap and water gal / someone who’ll keep me from downtown / But I still like to do my runnin’ round.”.

In Good Time Daddy Blues she’s a woman whose man comes and goes — “My good timin’ daddy, he don’t treat me right / He just comes ‘round when he wants and he leaves when he likes” whereas in Goodluck Man she’s, er, another woman whose man comes and goes: “.. You’re humming as you’re leaving / One more time I will choose to believe him.” Feminism, where art thou? Although: Drugs “comes from that dark place of needing to sate some desire or emptiness and being willing to use someone for that,” so who is using whom?

If her choice of men sucks, her choice of musicians and ability to write tunes are much better: the heartbreak and sadness is delivered with smooth tunes that can roll along at a lick — some could even be danced to — or wander along slowly, without ever sounding mournful.

One for anyone who likes traditional country music (or their women waiting sadly at home).

Out on Nine Mile Records.

 

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