“Now, that’s more like it,” I said to myself while listening to Kelly Jean Caldwell’s 7”, released in late 2010 on Top Magic Records.  I don’t know why I felt this way – I hadn’t been listening to shitty music, or been dissatisfied, or anything of the sort.  The feeling was of unknown provenance, but I think it says something about how adept Caldwell is at giving the listener what they inexorably desire: some goddamn good tunes.

I hear shades of Neko Case in some sort of alternative Sci-Fi / Western mashup.  Caldwell is strumming a beat-up guitar and firing up the crowd while a cowboy is shooting an Alien in the back of its oblong green skull.  Maybe I watch too much TV – but these two songs are evocative.  They are sharp and soft, expertly produced with deceptively simple layers; they drown in reverb, and Caldwell’s voice pierces and soothes.  She captures, in two songs, what endears people to indie-tinged Country-Folk: the heartfelt expression of life’s strikes and gutters.

The A-Side, “Outside Heart,” begins with a wail that drifts and shakes, Caldwell’s distorted voice slowly dissolving into an up-tempo jaunt that thrives on the strength of the coolly messy rhythm section and her always-enthralling vocal performance.  You want to slam three fingers of whiskey and go clock Switchyard Sammy with an empty 3-X jug, that bastard.

The B-Side, “Diamonds,” is the dirge after the romp, the comfort given to the listener for tapping along with “Outside Heart” so vigorously.  The song is framed by a piano that sounds like it could be in the Gem Saloon in Deadwood, yet somehow doesn’t come off as a gimmick.  It fits seamlessly into the slow, deliberate pace of “Diamonds.”  What also stands out here is that we hear another side, the sweet and sad side, of Caldwell’s range as a singer, and it is something to truly relish.