Julie Reeves - Its About Time (1999)

Twenty-five-year-old Julie Reeves is the personification of modern Nashville. Born in eastern Kentucky, a stone's throw from the hill country where poverty and isolation formed the bedrock of old-style hillbilly music, she's able to imbue the Dolly Parton-like "If Heartaches Had Wings"--about a young mother trapped in a marriage with a worthless sot--with honest Appalachian pathos. But she also grew up as a middle-class child raised on mainstream pop. As such, this big-voiced newcomer knows how to rock (check out the irresistible first track, "Trouble Is a Woman"), and demonstrates on the midtempo teaser "Do You Think About Me," in which she makes an old lover crazy with regret, that she's got the emotional depth to sell almost anything. It's About Time is mostly a radio album--packed with hooks and potential hits--but Reeves comes across as a real talent, an adaptable and believable singer who can survive whatever trend Nashville decides to sell this week. --Alanna Nash