Customer Reviews

A Little Girl... A Big Four-Lane

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3 star:		(1)
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Playing Time - 46:29 -- Alecia Nugent, from Deville, La., joined her family band "Southland Bluegrass" in 1988 at age of 16. In 2001, under the name Alecia McRight, she released her debut solo album produced by Carl Jackson. In 2002, she signed with Rounder Records. "A Little Girl...a Big Four-Lane," also produced by Jackson, is an excursion into acoustic country with considerable mainstream appeal. The songs come from reputable Nashville writers, including Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle, Jerry Salley, Ronnie Bowman, Dixie and Tom T. Hall, and others. Touched personally by these songs, she feels they capture her own emotions and she can relate to them. The supporting accompaniment is similarly first-rate with top session men Carl Jackson, Andy Falco, Rob Ickes, Adam Steffey, Jim Van Cleve, Steve Sutton, Kevin Grantt, and Tony Creasman.

Nugent delivers her lyrics with convincing emotion, and every note falls right into place. She gets accolades for covering many musical moods. Her no-holds-barred approach is best captured in the driving "Too Good To Be True" and "Breaking New Ground," while she croons with heartbroke intensity on the '-time "A Dozen White Roses." In a country duet with Bradley Walker, "When It Comes Down To Us" professes a strong love but also expects a certain amount of reciprocity. Alecia gets visceral with the bluesy "Muddy River," and her delicate, subtle voicing is most apparent on "God Knows What" and "Where His Wheels Left The Road." Bluegrass gospel gets the nod with "Meet Me In Heaven Someday," and no set is complete without a strong bluegrass song like the tribute she sings to Joe Carter called "I Cried All The Way To Kentucky." The tastefully-rendered background vocals are provided by Alison Krauss, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Doyle Lawson, Cia Cherryholmes, Carl Jackson, Jamie Dailey and others.

Alecia Nugent has a characteristic voice that will air nicely on radio stations open-minded to acoustic country and progressive bluegrass. With clarity of tone and purity of sound, Nugent's enchanting repertoire will have considerable commercial success in a market looking for raw talent, unbridled energy and heartfelt emotion. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

I had never heard of Alecia Nugent until I came across her first CD a month ago while browsing in Barnes and Noble. I was taken aback by the quality of her voice and purchased the CD. After listening to it, I knew I wanted to hear more of this woman with one of the most beautiful and natural voices I'd heard. This her second and only other CD is even better than the first. With the possible exception of "Breaking New Ground", every song is a keeper. Which is a rare find since it seems like most albums of new music today have a couple of good cuts followed by dull filler songs. Ms. Nugent is a wonderful ballad singer and this album highlights her talent. The highlights include "It won't be me", "God knows what" and "I cried all the way to Kentucky." If you like "slow songs" that are expressions of genuine emotion, you'll listen to this album over and over. This is not pure Bluegrass although the fiddle and the banjo are ever-present. And it is head and shoulders above the pablum that is coming out of the Nashville country scene these days. I'll be surprised if this one doesn't win an award or two even though it bucks the trend of the cookie-cutter songs that fill the airwaves. Can't wait for Alecia's third one.

This CD meets all of my criteria for a great CD. First, a bunch of great pickers: Rob Ickes from Blue Highway, Adam Steffey, an original member of AKUS & now w/ Mountain Heart & a bunch more. Second, songs that you can turn up loud in your truck & sing along with. Third, lyrics that you can understand. Fourth, simplicity - in the songs selected, the production, the singing of Alecia & the lack of hype in marketing - no marching bands or midgets dressed in shiny suits.
One personal gripe: "Letter from Home" is a song on the CD. The words have been changed to reflect Alecia's background in Louisiana (w/ co-songwriting credits given to Carl Jackson) when in fact the song was written in 1988 by Jennifer McCarter, one of the McCarter sisters reflecting their upbringing in East Tennessee. I would have liked to see some attribution given to the McCarters. Better yet, an invitation to one or all three to sing w/ Alecia. That would have been really cool!
Putting that aside, one last urgent plea to Carl Jackson, Alecia Nugent & others of a similar ilk: while Nashville is spinning off in weirder & weirder directions, please, please keep making music just like this.

I have listened to the whole cd, and I really enjoyed it.Of interst to me was the song"I Cried All The Way To Kentucky",not just because I live here, but the second part which goes,"I laughed all the way back".The song is about the passing of an uncle,and how she cried all the way to the funeral, but laughed all the way back home because she remembered how funny he was.I was impressed by her version of Carl Jackson's "Breaking New Ground", who also produced the cd.

For those of us out here who love good bluegrass, this is one of the best new talents I have heard. Listen closely. Who do you hear? I'ts Alecia Nugent, of course. But maybe just a little Rhonda Vincent and some Patty Loveless, too. That can't be a bad thing. Love her.

Having been a fan of Alecia Nugent since about 2004, I knew what I was getting when I purchased this C.D. I was not disappointed when it got here.She has a great voice and she has some great band mates behind her, and also a great producer. She's hard to beat. I think as good as Rhonda.

I have Alecia's last CD and it was also good, but this CD has some amazing Bluegrass Music on it. I can sit and listen to it for hours. I would love to see her live.

This Cd is terrific. I first heard one of the songs on this CD on XM radio, The Blurgrass Station. Not only was the song that made me order the CD great but there are many great songs on this CD, She is truly a talented singer and I can't wait to hear more from her.

This truly is a perfect album. It has the typical production values of a Carl Jackson product, the instrumentalists are all fine, A.N.'s voice is all you could ask for, and yet there is something missing.

There is a by-the-numbers feel to this album. To me, you can tell that this is not a band that has had a long on the road invlovement with the songs the way, say, the McCoury family has that shows up in their CDs. A.N. has written none of the songs herself and I would guess she chose few of them herself. In fact this seems to be another CD produced to get more Carl Jackson songs out into the world.

If the singer hasn't chosen the songs her/himself and has only a studio time involvement with them, and if the band hasn't been playing the songs for a long enough time to really get a feel for them, then you get an album like this: perfect, just fine, clean and somehow not a keeper.

I'd love to hear her first album.