There’s Nashville and there’s going to Nashville. Once you are in Nashville the machine swallows you up and shrink wraps you but, on the journey there, individuality can survive. That thought takes us nicely to “Box Full Of Trouble” by Laura McCormick as she is on that Greyhound bus to the first city of country music.
She’s big of voice and that fact alone could make her ideal for making any rock band out there better than they were but the songs that she chooses to sing mark her out as the kind of woman more at home in a truck stop than a stadium. That said, this is the twenty first century and, with that in mind, a girl’s night out, even in a small town, involves more than swapping recipes for meatloaf. Duly, Ms McCormick attends the Miranda Lambert school of telling it like it is and eschews vulnerability for an up-tempo reflection on reality as the inspiration for “Tuff Chick”. Even at a lesser pace, such as in “I’m Gonna Break your Heart”, that gritty view of love and life is delivered with the same commendable conviction. Rather more conventional, at least in country music terms, is “Mercy”. Conformity to expectations is what will capture the attention of housewives and truck drivers. It isn’t much of a crime and this song is guilty as charged.
So, enjoy Laura McCormick while you can for the Nashville machine is always hungry and she is undeniably going to be a tasty snack.