This is a celebration of song craft by two artists who hit it off while teaching at Acoustic Alaska Guitar Camp.
Betty Soo from Texas and Doug Cox from Vancouver Island, British Columbia overcame the logistical problem of being 2,500 miles apart to put together a ten track album aimed at keeping great story songs alive; Cox says: "Lots of these songs are in danger of disappearing if they don't keep being sung".
The main voice of this album is that of Bettysoo with Doug Cox providing the backing on dobro. The exceptions are on the album's most light-hearted songs. Cox sings lead vocals on Loudon Wainwright's Be Careful There's A Baby In The House and the duo do a nice double act on Blaze Foley's Big Cheeseburgers (and Good French Fries).
Bettysoo has a great ballsy voice but she simply sounds too pure and innocent for world-weary songs like Guy Clark's Dublin Blues or Butch Hancock's Boxcars. You can't really picture her rolling cigarettes or drinking mad-dog margharitas.
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She is more convincing when covering Jane Siberry's wistful You Don't Need or on Light In Your Window, a song by a little known song writing hero of hers - Betty Elders.
The latter, plus the title song Jeff Talmadge's Lie To Me are the songs that do most to fulfil the album's mission statement.
Album homepage
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