Chelle Rose

Ghost of Browder Holler (Lil’ Damsel)

A decade plus is a long time to follow up a first album. To Chelle Rose, the years between 2000’s Nanahally River and the Ghost of Browder Holler were long enough for the Tennessee native to raise a family and have her muse return. Now, Ghost appears to be one of 2012’s memorable pleasures: leather tough (“Leona Barnett”), rocking (“Alimony”), and too real to be faked (“Browder Holler Boy’). Some of that authenticity comes from her accent, as flat and thick as Smoky Mountain clouds, and some from producer Ray Wylie Hubbard, who recorded her in Texas. All the elements meet in her songwriting, tight with storytelling (“Rufus Morgan”), and true blood pain (“Wild Violets Pretty”). While she doesn’t need the local raconteur to validate her craft, when Hubbard chimes in with, “Did you think that I’d forget you, how could I do that?” on raw, haunting opener “Browder Holler Boy,” it brings goose bumps.

***.5

This article appears in July 20 • 2012.

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