Although recorded in New Orleans by a grateful transplant to the Crescent City, Lynn Drury’s Rise of the Fall occupies a space closer to Tom Petty than Alan Toussaint. She’s a remarkable songwriter in a rock vein—with side trips into balladry and country rock—drawing from a rich palette in the studio that includes cello and violin along with organ and saxophone. Drury’s occasional 12-string guitar playing summons ghosts of Petty and his ’60s roots. Singing in a rugged rootsy voice, she puts across her tough yet sensitive lyrics on the vagaries of love.
