BIG TAKEOVER REVIEW

You don't get a lot of country-rockers in New York (except at the Rodeo Bar), let alone in her former Detroit. And the attractive singer-songwriter looks like a folkie, but she's enamored with the pedal steel dobro, ukulele, fiddle and dixie-fied acoustics that are the spirit of her debut LP, produced by Charles Newman (Magnetic Fields). As someone who admires Charlie Rich as she does, Ms. Michaels, I could see her singing a gender-changed version of ("did you happen to see") "The Most Beautiful Girl." The sound is a little too clean and she could dig in harder, out of the light pop and deeper into the sorrowful country ("How Long can Memories Last"). But just for something different in the Big Apple, I like rustic Nashville elements.
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