Sarah Sharp - Fourth Person (2005)

Austin-based singer/songwriter Sarah Sharp has a distinctive voice, an agreeably sharp-edged vocal instrument that adds an element of spin even to songs that in other hands might seem a bit sickly-sweet. Easy points of vocal comparison include T-Bone Burnett, Amy Rigby and the underrated San Francisco-based folk-rock songwriter Sonya Hunter, all of whom have a similar nasal twang. Musically, however, Sharp owes more to Burnett's ex-wife Sam Phillips or even ironic New York jazz-pop chanteuse Nellie McKay: elements of cool jazz, Tin Pan Alley pop, and Magnetic Fields-like indie rock permeate songs like the bossa nova-tinged "Blame It on the Night" and the pretty but tightly wound "Coffee Shop Song." As a songwriter, Sharp is a bit too unformed to sound truly distinctive, but she does sound like more than the sum of her influences, and the best songs on Fourth Person, like the driving, keyboard-led folk-rock of "Can't We Just Love," suggest that this promising artist has the potential to create something genuinely great.~Review by Stewart Mason