Sarah Pierce

Bring It On (Little Bear)

Over the course of eight albums, Sarah Pierce’s songwriting sensibilities and subject matter have varied little. With Bring It On she persists in singing affairs of the heart in a simple, country-fed manner at times cringe inducing. Pierce’s clear, pretty vocals recall Tish Hinojosa and Laurie Lewis, two songwriters who cover analogous ground, and as produced by her longtime mentor Merel Bregante, Pierce’s Red Dirt background comes out on tunes including the sunshiny “Cowgirls Ride” and the unpretentious “Twenty Dollar Silver Plated Ring,” two of her more effective compositions. Elsewhere, “Butterfly Tattoo” is a string of clichés on steroids, and the Byrds-y jangle of “Love Being in Love” is strangled by cuteness. Featured guest turns by Cindy Cashdollar, Cody Braun, Riley Osbourn, and Jane Gillman keep Pierce’s music relatively unblemished, but her storytelling could use a healthy dose of imagination.

**

This article appears in October 7 • 2011.

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