The best description I’ve heard of Amy is "a rootsier, more dangerous Norah Jones".  Her music doesn’t fall into the ‘pop’ category as easily as Jones’.  Amy is much more diverse and has her roots more in traditional country, but like Jones she has a flowery, even softer voice and chooses more challenging and varied music.  When you see a photo of the beautiful but small LaVere and hear her soft voice it is hard to imagine her in a punk band, let alone wrestling with an upright bass. She is definitely a student of music and music history and has been a tour guide at Sun Studios in Memphis. Let me explain when I say I’m not quite sure what to make of this record. Plastered across the top of the promotional flier that came with the CD is the following quote; "It’s one of the best records I’ve ever made".  This quote is not from Amy herself, but from the producer Jim Dickinson.  While Dickinson definitely has the credits to made this statement, this seemed odd to me.  Shouldn’t the big promotional tag involve the musician, not the producer?  This left me wondering who was driving the bus here.  While I enjoyed most of the songs on the album, they vary so much in style that I wondered whether or not the producer was trying to show how he could produce a widely varied CD of music. The CD opens with a song called "Killing Him," inspired by a quote Amy heard from a woman who had just murdered her husband of 30 years, "Killing him didn’t make the love go away". This is definitely one of the highlight of the CD.  Amy then shines on the slow and beautiful classic country ballad "Tennessee Valentine."  "Washing Machine" has a blues feel that didn’t seem to work as well to Amy’s talents and made me wonder who brought this one to the table.  As she ventured into the funkier side, I did enjoy her slow version of the Carla Thomas song "That Beat," with a haunting violin, but I didn’t care for the oddly funky tune "People Get Mad." Near the end of the CD comes my favorite song "Cupid’s Arrow," written by Amy. This song really works to her strengths and highlights her beautiful voice, as well as guitar and violin.  The CD closes with a good rendition of Bob Dylan’s "I’ll Remember You." I think Amy LaVere is a very talented musician and songwriter as most of this CD shows.  I just feel she could choose some of the songs she does more carefully and play to her strengths more than cover so many styles at once. LaVere also has some acting credits, among them playing Wanda Jackson in the film Walk the Line, as well as playing Jesse in the film Black Snake Moan staring Samuel L. Jackson and Justin Timberlake.