Her mother Liz has a Song of the Year Grammy to her credit ("You Belong With Me", written with Taylor Swift for Swift's 2009 album FEARLESS), and her father Johnny is a veteran of the Nashville music scene. So one might expect that OWN SIDE NOW, the official feature-length CD debut of 23 year-old Nashville songstress Caitlin Rose, would sound like almost anything from the Taylor Swift/Carrie Underwood school of inoffensive and conservative country radio, especially since Caitlin is only two and a half years older than Swift.
But expectations are meant to be challenged; and so it is with this CD, thanks in part to her parents' having schooled her in the fine art of classic country, 1950s rockabilly, and 1970s West Coast country-rock. Caitlin has a voice that is as young and developing as she is, but she also has a songwriting gift that shows her to be wise beyond her years. With the sole exception of "That's Alright", a countryish cover of a song from Fleetwood Mac's 1987 album MIRAGE, everything on OWN SIDE NOW is either solely written or co-written by Caitlin. She takes more than a few pointers from Patsy Cline on songs like "New York" and "Shanghai Cigarettes", a little bit from Sun Records-era Elvis on "Coming Up" and "Spare Me", and 1950s pop on "For The Rabbits." And on other songs, like the title track and "Sinful Wishing Well", she channels the acoustic-influenced country-rock of her biggest avowed influence Linda Ronstadt (astounding in and of itself, since she is four decades younger than Linda). Caitlin, however, does right by herself by not being slavishly imitative of what she has been influenced by, and just being authentically herself (as Linda herself once said, "You don't have to be original, just authentic").
In truth, Caitlin is very much of the "old school" of doing things, sticking to classic and traditional forms while still being contemporary and thought-provoking, which is something we don't see much anymore in either country or pop. Judging by the high quality of the songs, the production, and Caitlin's voice, this is a great way to start, and things can only get better for her as her career develops in the years to come.