Coming Up Close

She can sing hard and she can sing soft and sell a song either way, and she proves that on Coming Up Close her solo album. Coming Up Close casts Jeannie in an Irish philosopher's role-melancholy, but loving life in songs by 9 visionaries of Americana whose protagonists have settled for less than perfection. The music is bluesy folk-rock featuring several gorgeous ballads, like the title cut by Aimee Mann which shimmers and wonders, and Blue Norther by Louise Taylor, a haunted account of working-class life in gulf coast Texas.