My Father's Only Son

With her Martin guitar and long cotton-print dresses, Indiana's Carrie Newcomer would seem to be the very model of the modern folk musician. She quickly dispels that notion, however, with the very first song on My Father's Only Son. The song is "Crazy in Love," and before Newcomer even opens her mouth, her folk-rock band shatters any possible mood of introspection with a twangy electric guitar riff and soulful organ chords. "You wouldn't think a grown woman would act like a high school girl," Newcomer sings, celebrating such pop-music prejudices as action over thought and passion over prudence. Not every song on My Father's Only Son escapes the endemic carefulness of coffeehouse folk as successfully as "Crazy in Love," and Newcomer sometimes gives in to whispery quaintness. --Geoffrey Himes