Edie Brickell

From the moment she begins singing on her much-anticipated new album, Edie Brickell’s voice is instantly familiar, even after a ten-year break from recording. The quirky phrasing of the vocals and the introspective, narrative quality of the lyrics are unmistakably Edie. The opening track simultaneously makes clear that Volcano is unlike any of her previous recordings. A simply arranged, rootsy waltz that features Brickell singing and accompanying herself on guitar, the song epitomizes the album: a powerfully immediate, distinctively solo effort on which she is the only vocalist and plays guitar throughout.

After achieving fame and success in the late 1980s as the lead singer of the platinum-selling folk-rock group The New Bohemians, Edie settled down in the `90s to have children and enjoy a family life. But her passion for music and songwriting was unrelenting; new melodies and lyrics kept coming to her. She also undertook intensive guitar lessons.

When she had written enough songs and was ready to record, Brickell reached fellow native Texan Charlie Sexton to produce the album with her. An accomplished songwriter himself who has also worked with Alejandro Escovedo, Lucinda Williams, Jimmy Vaughan and others, Sexton brought, above all, a shared sensibility that translates into a feeling of spaciousness and an unhurried pace in the music.

These values are equally audible in the songwriting, which is strengthened, as ever, by Brickell’s singular knack for storytelling. The album’s title track combines her warm acoustic guitar and keen narrative sense with Sexton’s signature electric blues riffs. “Take a Walk”-an invitation to turn off the TV and head for Central Park-is propelled by walks up and down the fretboard. Another highlight is “I’d Be Surprised,” which begins with a progression of quiet jazz chords and builds to an electric, rock-tinged climax.