If you just judged an album by its cover, you would be mostly wrong about Judith Edelman's
Drama Queen. From the looks of it, you might want to banish her to the land of singer/songwriters like
Suzanne Vega,
Lucy Kaplansky, or Dar Williams -- you know, folksingers with a splash of urban sensibility. Problem is, you'd be wrong. Check the fine print to see that this is a Compass Records release and then you'll get on track. For Edelman actually sidles up alongside artists like
Nickel Creek,
Alison Krauss, and
Tift Merritt in the valley that exists somewhere betwixt and between pop, folk, country, and bluegrass. Though at times Edelman sounds vaguely like Williams and/or
Jennifer Kimball, her slightly twangy, very wispy, lilting voice sails sweetly over mandolins, fiddles, banjos, and acoustic guitars. The earth is certainly not shattered by the artistic contribution
Drama Queen makes to society, but it's far from a bad record. It's more of a background, easy to digest, don't rock the boat sort of listening experience than anything else. And these days, that's actually saying something.
