Loves It!

Yay!

Jenny Parrott and Vaughn Walters’ debut plucks good-naturedly from bluegrass, country, and folk, combining the local multi-instrumentalists’ two halves into a whole. Almost. There’s a sugar high to Loves It!, and the cavity-tingling sweetness of “Dinosaurs” proves the duo is made for its own kids’ TV show. Parrott of ATX country-punks Shotgun Party provides the mountain high to Walters’ valley low, and they’ve got a great imagination (“Bobby Kennedy,” “Christmas Tree Bridge”) even when the bluegrass gets sad (“Trouble Lord”). Yay! never comes together as a story like good country albums do, and with more tongue-in-cheek, opener “What Kind of Love” could’ve approached John Prine and Iris DeMent’s “In Spite of Ourselves.” Save for a few solid hits here, exclamatory enthusiasm seems to peak with the twosome’s namesake.

**.5

This article appears in April 29 • 2011.

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