On her second EP, Trixie Mattel, the dolled-up alias of Milwaukee’s Brian Michael Firkus, comes to the country genre from a more traditional aural perspective than most of what passes for country on commercial radio nowadays—and more sincerity and sensitivity than what one might expect from a contestant on a campfest such as “RuPaul’s Drag Race. ”
The erstwhile Hamburger Mary’s performer is mostly coyer about matters of sexuality on One Stone than on her previous release, Two Birds (see a pattern?) but still speaks for the alienated, out of sorts and heartbroken. One number reflecting that last demographic sounds to be about lesbian romance gone sour. In a peppier mood, Mattel taps a little into the wellspring of disco/country hybridism from which acts historic as Dolly Parton and recent as Thomas Rhett have had hits. With a slightly slicker production sheen, Firkus’/Mattel’s songwriting is smart enough and his voice plenty charming (if endearingly not always pitch-perfect) to merit attention from Music Row.
