Album Review of
If We Knew

Written by Joe Ross
January 30, 2020 - 5:01pm EST
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Singer/songwriter/guitarist Kerry Wallace hails from a small town (population 230) in central Wyoming. For her third full-length album, she teams with multi-instrumentalist Ben Winship who co-produced and engineered this project, with the exception of two tracks, at his Henhouse Recording Studio in Victor, Idaho. Wallace offers three originals (“If We Knew,” “Home in My Mind,” “Ballad of Bertie Brown”), and she has fashioned moving personal statements that are sung straight from the heart.   She covers tried-and-true material from Gene MacLellan, Tom T. and Dixie Hall, Delbert McClinton and others, and I never tire of hits like Gordon Lightfoot’s “Cotton Jenny” or “Early Morning Rain” that Kerry Wallace arranges with her own tastefully-rendered fingerstyle guitar. Recorded in Nashville, the lyrics were modified slightly in Johnny Cash’s “There You Go” to turn it into a pleasant duet that Wallace sings with Richard Lynch. Another duet done with Arlene Faith, “I Know a Heartache When I See One,” was a hit for Jennifer Warnes in 1979. Wallace’s burnished, calibrated vocals and the straight-forward picking offer a nice package. Besides reinvigorating old material and offering some fresh new originals, Wallace gives each song some unique instrumental flavorings with elements of country, folk and even a little bluegrass. Like the sepia tone of her album’s cover, Wallace’s music is earthy, warm and sentimental. (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)