Mandy Barnett

If kd lang can kick-start her career by channelling Saint Patsy, I don’t see why Mandy Barnett can’t do the same. After all, when she was 18 she played Patsy in the Nashville production of Always…Patsy Cline. So, on her second solo album she gets longtime Cline producer Owen Bradley to produce four of the tracks and his offspring to handle the other eight. And, best of all, she tackles the country torch and twang as well as anyone since Patsy (who pretty much invented the whole thing), kd included. Her voice is tremendous — pure and sweet, with just the right amount of tear in it, it captures the soaring heartbreak of the material perfectly. The four Owen Bradley tracks feature his patented blend of weeping steel guitar and lush strings. The rest is much grittier, eschewing the orchestral strings for the Opry ones, and coming closer to real honest to goodness honky tonk. Porter Wagoner’s “Trademark” is a pure honky tonk weeper, and Mickey Newbury’s “Funny, Familiar, Forgotten Feelings” will break your heart. A little Mavericks’ Latin country is found on “I’m Gonna Change Everything,” “Falling, Falling, Falling” has the no-bullshit spunk of prime Loretta Lynn, and “Ever True Evermore” will have them two stepping down at the VFW. She’s a keeper.