Mountain mama tells it like it is.

Lisa LeBlanc brings the brash, raw realness on Highways, Heartaches And Times Well Wasted. “The smell of your old cigarette has stayed on my coat/ And even though I find it kind of gross/ It somehow comforts me‰” opens up an album that continues relentlessly with the same blunt confessionals and non-stop folk rock/ bluegrass-y sound.

With high speed banjo solos throughout and an instrumental track made up of little more than spaghetti western whistling, you can practically smell the smoke of a campfire while listening to it. Tracks like “Gold Diggin‰’ Hoedown‰” and the softer, twangy “Race Track‰” both have a vengeful feeling of a woman scorned. If Kissin‰’ Kate Barlow from the movie Holes made an album then this would be it. But don‰’t let this turn you off to listening, even if this necessarily isn‰’t your sound the honesty is overwhelming and kind of universal.

Fresh yet authentic, impassioned and with really clear, crisp production quality, Highways, Heartaches And Times Well Wasted is an all around fantastic album.

RIYL: Puss N Boots, Lydia Loveless, Heartless Bastards
Recommended Tracks: 1, 5, 6