What the love child of Rilo Kiley and Emmylou Harris would sound like.

10 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, FOLK: Folk-Rock

Details:
Every once in a rare moment of time, you stumble across singers who still surrounding noise simply by raising their voice. Their power doesnât lie in their ability to out-shout competition (although a talent for generating superhuman volume a la Little Featâs Shaun Murphy is certainly impressive). Itâs in their gift for connection. They grab listenersâ ears and compel them to pay attention by resolutely turning inward and excavating all the passion and poetry they find churning within themselves. Heather Waters has that gift.

Indie hipsters and jaded industry mavens have often cut the club chatter to key in on what Waters does onstage. Once she adjusts her vintage microphone, she seemingly transports herself to some other place in time as she sings the blazes out of heartbreak ballads, a cappella gospel chestnuts and bluesy confessionals burning with candid need and longing. With her eyes closed and hands hovering around her mic, the effect is one of a prayerful supplicant in communion with her muse.

Offstage, all that musical transcendence gets blasted by Watersâ irreverent humor. The woman can be gleefully, wickedly funny... just ask her to share some of her stories about making the rounds of Chicago blues clubs when she was first starting out. After a tough childhood in the Chicago area, she transplanted herself to Bostonâs storied singer-songwriter community and then Nashville, where roadhouse rocker Delbert McClinton and his wife became substitute family. She opened countless shows for the veteran bluesman and sang harmony alongside the likes of Emmylou Harris on McClintonâs Grammy-nominated album, âRoom to Breathe."

Waters recently finished mastering her new record, propeller, on which she took the reigns and stepped into the producer's shoes. "You can either thank or blame Greg Leisz for that. He convinced me that I had it in to me to drive this one," she says with a laugh.â Recorded in Los Angeles, propeller is a vibrant musical and lyrical landscape; itâs as rich as it is rocking⦠as torchy as it is rootsy.

The CD opens with âDiane,â a Delphic murder ballad swathed in eerie New England imagery and haunting Hammond B3 swells. On âWait for Me,â Michael Chavesâ edgy guitar and the driving bass and drum groove of rhythm section powerhouses Sean Hurley and Craig Macintyre announce an energizing new direction. The result is crisp, satisfying and hip⦠what the lovechild of Rilo Kiley and Emmylou Harris would sound like. Co-written with Rich McCulley for Watersâ late grandmother June, âWait for Meâ is a shining example of her tremendous growth as a writer and producer.

Watersâ soulful roots are evident in the greasy gospel treatment she gave to Sean Staplesâ âJoy Comes Back to Meâ and on âStone & Concrete,â a pensive tale of betrayal set against a backdrop of the Hollywood sign, Beach Boy harmonies and Peter Adamsâ (Michael Penn) achingly beautiful piano. While the new material hums with deeper R&B grooves, there are several richly romantic heartbreakers for which she is known. Fans of Willie Nelsonâs Teatro will fall in love with âSix Ways to Sunday,â a bittersweet lullaby that mingles Latin flavored guitar with punch drunk Wurli. The disc closes with âCastaway,â a passionate Motown-esque narrative inspired by a friendâs unplanned pregnancy and bitter divorce.

With rising divas like Feist and Amy Winehouse reminding audiences of the beauty of a good melody soulfully sung, Waters stands to rocket to new heights with propeller.

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