Madison's Whitney Mann makes her music on the folkier side of country. The sparse production and unremitting melancholy may mark Mann as an alt-country chanteuse, but her interweaving of soft melodic lines reveals influences like Bonnie Raitt and Neil Diamond. The real thrill of this six-song debut, however, is Mann's emotionally rich soprano sounding so doggone sweet amid all the sadness and resignation of which she sings. That kind of juxtaposition harkens back to country's earliest recordings, with Mann sounding not a little like Patty Griffin and looking entirely too unscathed to have lived through all that heartbreak and jadedness.
