My Father's Only Son

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 <I>My Father's Only Son</I>. 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 <I>My Father's Only Son</I> escapes the endemic carefulness of coffeehouse folk as successfully as "Crazy in Love," and Newcomer sometimes gives in to whispery quaintness. <I>--Geoffrey Himes</I>