Annie and the Beekeepers My Bonneville

ANNIE AND THE BEEKEEPERS

My Bonneville

Self Produced (annieandthebeekeepers.com)

* * * ½

Annie Lynch has an angelic voice often rendered in soft, whispery tones, but put her in the same category as singers such as Alison Krauss and Aoife O’Donovan who can also air it out when the song demands. The latest from Annie and the Beekeepers–a band name she adopted when she was a student at the Berklee School of Music–is a  ten-track production (funded by Kickstarter) of Lynch originals on an album she named for her first car! Lynch’s music is generally classified as “folk,” though as this album attests, that’s probably as much due to her delicate vocals as the instrumental treatment. The title track, for instance, feels like country pop grafted onto The Beatles’ “On My Way Back Home,” and “Wake Up Mama” is an eerie little dream sequence draped in some spooky bass, jangly surf guitar, banjo, and improvised slap percussion. Still, it’s Lynch’s gorgeous vocals that most people remember. Listen to a song such as “A Light at the End” and hear her voice in all its glories–clear, emotional, a hint of husk, and just the right amount of force–on one of those songs that sticks in your brain long after the last note and leaves you unsure if it’s one of the prettiest or saddest songs you’ve heard in ages. She can also leave you sashaying around the room, as in the waltz tempo “WrongDarling” where she sounds like Patsy Cline’s long lost younger sister. (Yeah, I know Patsy had sister, but you get the point!) Not every one of the songs on the homespun My Bonneville sounds album-ready, but I doubt you’ll tire of listening to Ms. Lynch sing. --Rob Weir

Check out her stripped down “In the Water”