Rotation

-- j. poet

Heather Myles
Highways & Honky Tonks
Rounder

Honky-tonk -- it's the liquor-soaked, tear-stained heart of country music, the metaphorical place where the steel guitars whine and the fiddles wail under neon beer signs while singers tell true-life stories. It's also pretty much a dying art, except for here in the Lone Star State and the California Central Valley populated by the offspring of Okie and Texan migrants.

Heather Myles certainly has honky-tonk credentials in her background, having been raised on a California horse ranch. And on this, her third studio album, her execution finally measures up to the idea of this pretty C&W crooner of heartbreak songs. In these days of alternative country, she's one of the few young artists who make no concession to current trends, cutting a stone country album that embodies the spirit of 1960s honky tonk within 1990s garb. The vibe of the accompaniment (by such Dwight Yoakam compadres as Pete Anderson and Skip Edwards) and the arrangements is so true you can almost smell the stale beer scent and feel the sawdust under your cowboy boots, as if this album was a Saturday night in your favorite country barroom.

Highways & Honky Tonks bears the imprimatur of country credibility with the presence of Merle Haggard, who duets with Myles on her song "No One Is Gonna Love You Better." She also delivers fine versions of the Charlie Pride hit "Kiss an Angel Good Morning," turning the song's orientation around from that of a good and proud man to that of a satisfied woman, and Ray Price's "I'll Be There If You Ever Want Me," where she performs a similar switch in perspective. But the really satisfying thing about this disc is how Myles's own writing has come into its own. With a deep and dusky voice that resembles Tanya Tucker, Myles dances her way into the spotlight once occupied by Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette in their early heydays. If this were 30 years ago, Myles would no doubt be a rising star. As it is, this is the sort of music that Nashville should still be making but has forsaken. Let's salute Heather Myles for keeping a bit of musical history very much alive. Even if it wasn't God who made honky-tonk angels, music like this is indeed a blessing from above.

-- Rob Patterson