Followin' a Feelin'

Sherrié Austin's sassy, sensuous tenor has a captivating and irrepressible charm that's made all the more alluring by the delicious undertones of her subtle Aussie accent. Yet on her third album (for which she cowrote all but one of the 10 songs, most of them with producer Will Rambeaux), Austin fleshes out the lower-register textures of her dexterous voice while also breaking ground with some new thematic dimensions. Captivating originals like "In the Meantime" and "Time, Love & Money" address timely themes of adults coming to terms with youthful fantasies and finding meaning amid the madness and mundanity of the everyday world. These tracks also prove to be worthy showcases for Austin's effervescent purrs, growls, and harmonic flourishes. A real standout is the harmonically and instrumentally hooky "My Brilliant Mistake," a gem of a song about how life's worst choices sometimes mysteriously lead to happy outcomes. Austin's reprise of Dolly Parton's classic "Jolene" is also an exhilarating and stunning vocal tour de force. --Bob Allen