Bible Belt

Hats off and hands up for singer/songwriter Diane Birch for her debut album "Bible Belt." If you add a little bit of quirky Nelly Furtado with soulful Norah Jones and a touch of playful Feist, then you will end up with the music on this album.

Even though she is only in her mid-twenties, Birch has a mature voice that is hard to find these days in the musical world. Listen to her songs "Fire Escape" and "Fools" and you will understand where I am coming from. Her raspy, soulful voice reverberates off the walls. Adding to her developed vocal skills, her elastic-like fingers glide over the piano like leaves gliding over freshly cut grass. With influences from a list of Sixties and Seventies soul singers, the album presents old-fashioned values that will never die.

"Bible Belt" was recorded in New York City and New Orleans. Grammy-winning producers who had a hand in the album's creation include Steve Greenburg, Betty Wright, and Mike Mangini. The Roots bassist Adam Blackstone and the guitarist of The Patti Smith Group Lenny Kaye are some of the musicians amongst the 13 songs on the record.

The lyrical content on Bible Belt gives detail to the everyday challenges of love. "Nothing But A Miracle" verbalizes so well how a woman needs to break up with her boyfriend and find someone else who will love her endlessly. It goes "Gotta go out and maybe start meeting some new people / I gotta go out and buy myself one of those little black dresses / Cause I'm so tired of this t-shirt / I'm so tired of cryin off all my make-up."

Although Diane Birch's "Bible Belt" has made a good impact in general, I still believe she is being modest and has a greater musical capability. Hopefully her future albums will fully show-off her talent.