Pieta Brown: Pieta Brown

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * *)

Daughter of rightly acclaimed, Iowa-born, New York City-smart singer-songwriter Greg Brown (whose '92 Poet Game and more recent Covenant and Milk of the Moon are much recommended) and produced by his equally hailed guitarist/producer Bo Ramsey, this debut album irritates as much as it delights. Brown The Younger has a lazy, slurry delivery much like Lucinda Williams but without the sensuality (does she ever actually enunciate the end of a word?), so it sounds like an affectation to cover a voice which might reveal its lack of power and depth if extended.

Despite that - and Ramsey's typically skeletal arrangements and production add an attractive evocative quality - there is considerable appeal to some of the material and she sounds highly promising. But too often her melancholy lyrics are undernourished, and the minimalism sounds like a substitute for the deeper unspoken emotions it seems to suggest. However sometimes saying very little repeatedly is just saying very little repeatedly, not an entry into gravitas.

Think an acoustic, slightly country Chrissie Hynde who aspires to be Williams' understudy.

Label: Trailer Records