Laura Cantrell

• When the Roses Bloom Again [Diesel Only, 2002]
• The Hello Recordings [Diesel Only, 2004] **
• Trains and Boats and Planes [Diesel Only EP, 2008]
• No Way There From Here [Thrift Shop, 2014] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

When the Roses Bloom Again [Diesel Only, 2002]
"If It's All the Same to You," "Don't Break the Heart"

The Hello Recordings [Diesel Only, 2004]
She does try to sound pristine, and in 1996 it must have come easier ("Lee Harvey Was a Friend of Mine," "Roll Truck Roll"). **

Trains and Boats and Planes [Diesel Only EP, 2008]
"Love Vigilantes," "Trains and Boats and Planes," "Howard Hughes Blues"

No Way There From Here [Thrift Shop, 2014]
Now in her mid forties, Nashville-born, New York-based Columbia grad Cantrell has always been one of those intensely likable, not necessarily female Nashville helpmeets whose own music is a quantum too mild to break out of their circle. But on her first album of new songs since she stepped back to have a kid, two cowrites with the darker and sharper Amy Allison are intensely flavorful: the pan-feminist "All the Girls Are Complicated" and the pining-for-my-guy "Can't Wait." Great melodies too from Jennifer O'Connor on the songwriter-centric "Beg or Borrow Days" and Franklin Bruno on the dislocated "No Way There From Here" and, hey, Laura Cantrell acting alone on the calmly bereft "Letter She Sent." That's a lot. Welcome outside the circle, ma'am. A-