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PASTE Magazine
Reid Davis
June 2008
Indies 1, Nashville 0
In the nightmare version of
Caroline Herring’s story, she moves to Nashville, signs
a big publishing deal and is stuck dumbing down her
razor-sharp songwriting for Music Row pod people like
Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift. Fortunately, Nashville
hasn’t yet sunk its claws into Herring’s immensely empathetic,
unprepossessing charm. Exhibit A: “Paper Gown” (about
convicted child-murderer Susan Smith) has to be the
best example of a songwriter getting inside the head
of an unsympathetic real-life protagonist since Steve
Earle’s “John Walker’s Blues.” And rather than an immaculately
auto-tuned robo-singer, Herring effortlessly plumbs
the emotional depths of her songs with her evocative
alto. Her delivery, along with Rich Brotherton’s pitch-perfect
production, makes this song cycle resonant in more ways
than a simple, rootsy singer/songwriter album ought
to. Lantana comes on the heels of a five-year break
Herring took to get married and start a family, and
her music is all the richer for it.
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