Corn Fed

If I didn't know better, I'd think the phrase "...breath of fresh air..." was created when someone heard Shannon Brown. On her major label debut Corn Fed, aided by producer/singer/songwriter/country-superstar John Rich (Big & Rich), Ms. Brown clears away all the detritus of labeling gossip and speaks her mind like the bold country girl that she is.

The entire album is a well balanced effort of honest lyricism and vocally uplifting, soulful cathartic country tunes that seem like they're going to define, or help guide, which path country music's going to take next. On "High Horses", Ms. Brown takes every critical country purist naysayer to task with lyrics like "...if you ask me I say screw all the boundaries, cuz it's all about whatever moves your soul", and damned if she doesn't practice what she preaches.

A musically uplifting album, Ms. Brown has constructed a full work that's unmistakably country, but simultaneously crosses boundaries into gospel and rock. "Turn To Me" sounds like it belongs on pop radio, but doesn't sacrifice its basic country clarity... and for the life of me I don't know how she makes it sound so easy, or why other artists make it sound so hard.

I recently drove across the country from coast to coast with a close friend of mine who was raised listening to classical music, and later came into alternative and pop music. Educated as she is however, the stigma of "country music" seemed pervasive to every steel stringed five-second sample of a song she heard as the radio scanned as she sneered and grunted whenever she heard it. That kind of "big city" snobbery (and I'm from NYC mind you), keeps people from experiencing MUSIC.

Although she is a country artist, Ms. Brown's music transcends labels like "country", or "blues". It's just music, and it's simply, Something Good.