22/9/2006  4 Stars

MAVERICK

Annie Sims

Half The Moon

Aspirion Records-00000

* * * *

A quite enchanting album from a young lady with a wonderfully sweet and crystal clear voice.

Annie was raised in East Tennessee, and from an early age had the kind of voice that could make people cry when singing a sad song, she also proved herself a quick learner when learning to play the piano at the age of six.

Thanks to support slots on tours with Don Williams and Gene Pitney, Annie has already made inroads into the European market. She gained such a good following in the UK that an International Fan Club was formed, and by the end of the Gene Pitney tour she had sold and autographed over 7000 copies of her debut album ANNIE.

Any fans that were lucky enough to buy that first CD will absolutely adore this one. Annie’s tender and pure vocals are just exquisite on ballads such as the wonderful title track Half The Moon and the exceedingly beautiful Go Within written by Annie alongside her husband Greg who wrote the music.

One of the singles from the album, Eighty Acres Of Stars is another gorgeous tune. Written by renowned songwriter Richard Leigh along with Layng Martine Jr, it tells the story of how Richard asked his wife to marry him, and everyone that hears the song falls in love with it as did Annie when she first heard the demo. Richard Leigh is well known for songs such as The Greatest Man I Never Knew and Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.

A proven ballad singer, Annie also shows that she can up the tempo, as on the Cajun dance tune You Don’t Have To Tell Me Twice and the slightly bluesy toe-tapper Concrete Ribbon which is the kind of tune you would normally find being sung by someone like Suzy Bogguss.

Annie has writing credits on six of the tracks, proving her credentials as a very good songwriter who can ensnare you with truly captivating lyrics, as on the bewitching Ruby Red Slippers. She also does a lovely country covering of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind.

The musicianship is also of the highest quality as she has been helped out on this album by some of the finest Nashville session musicians on the circuit, the long list includes such names as Russ Pahl (acoustic guitar/pedal steel/jaws harp etc), fiddle player Andrea Zonn, Tim Akers on accordion and Marty Slayton and Harry Stinson on backing vocals.

There is not one bad track on this quite lovely album. – Dave Knowles