Mindy Smith
One Moment More

Review By Steven Stone
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CD Number: Vanguard Records 

  When I heard Mindy Smith singing "Jolene" on the Dolly Parton tribute album Just Because I'm a Woman my first thought was who is that? Smith has a special quality to her voice and phrasing that stops you dead in your tracks. Her new album, her first album actually, proves that the cut on the Dolly Parton anthology was no fluke.

Mindy Smith wrote all eleven songs on One Moment More. There's not a single dud among them. The songs themselves fall into that gray area between country, folk, and contemporary pop. They feel like the kind of material Faith Hill wanted to do on her latest release Cry. In addition to fine songwriting, the arrangements and orchestration on One Moment More are first-rate. Accompanied by musicians such as Bryan Sutton on acoustic guitar, Glenn Worf on bass, Kenny Vaughn and Will Kimbrough on electric guitar, Matt Rollings on Hammond B-3 organ, Dug Dugmore on steel and lapsteel guitar, Lex Price on mandolin, and co-producer Steve Buckingham on dulcimer, B-3, and electric guitar, Smith delivers a platinum-worthy first effort. The sound production on One Moment More is state of the art — smooth, sweet, detailed, real ear candy.

Savvy reviewers should avoid predictions, but Mindy Smith can provoke otherwise cagey pundits into perching on precarious protuberances. She has all the necessary attributes to be a huge star. I think she could be as big as big gets — One Moment More is the alt-country equivalent of Cheryl Crow's first album Tuesday Night Music Club or Shawn Colvin's Steady On — a grand slam home run first effort. Like her other new fans, I'm eagerly looking forward to more.

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