Artist:     Jamie Lin Wilson

Album:     Holidays and Wedding Rings

Label:     Self-released

Release Date:     05/19/2015

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Jamie Lin Wilson of the Trishas has released her first full-solo studio album amidst an array of multi-tasking challenges that would be too daunting for most. Wilson, however, had similar journeys with her first two children, and although she had not planned to be delivering her third child in the middle of the recording, she went ahead anyway, recruiting fellow Texans, Wade Bowen, Jon Dee Graham, Owen Temple and several others as collaborators. Wilson wrote five originals for the album, and her lyrics at times reach the emotional depth of Gretchen Peters or Mary Gauthier, but the music clearly has a ‘Texas versus Nashville’ feel to it. Perhaps a better comparison in both writing and vocals would be to Amanda Shires, a fellow Texan who also writes with soul-baring honesty.

Wilson’s duet with Wade Bowen, “Just Some Things,” is a self-described ‘almost cheating’ song, with expertly rendered lines like, “It’s like runnin’ for the edge and thinkin’ you’ll fly, knowing damned well it’s suicide.”  The closer, “Old Oldsmobile,” perfectly captures the small town joy of a, “let the wind blow back your hair” feeling. Wilson has delivered a dozen really good songs, about six or seven of which are exceptional. Be sure to also check out “Moving Along,” “Seven Year Drought,” Whisper on My Skin” and “Here Tonight”. You feel as if you’ve just had an hour of really in-depth one-on-one discussion with Wilson about motherhood, marriage and a variety of familial and friendly relationships. It’s an album that requires careful listening, but it’s well worth it.

-Jim Hynes