With Daisies In My Hand, Mary Alice Wood, a Missouri-based singer-songwriter, mixes the best parts of rock 'n' roll and country, loads it with tough but tender songs that focus on matters of the heart and delivers a highly memorable and deep-cutting album. While Wood will (or already has) no doubt garner some comparisons to Lucinda Williams (tracks such as the Stones-y "Daisies In My Hand" or the heartbreakingly beautiful ballad "Angel," where Wood gets in deep touch with the spirit of Emmylou Harris, are the most obvious examples here), Wood's influences and songs run deeper and broader than that. She touches on the quasi-kitschy (but ultra-tasty) with "Cowboy In A Curl," a guitar-driven instrumental that wouldn't be out of place on an album by six-string heroes The Ventures, traditional folk balladry ("If I Told You," which should leave Nanci Griffith wishing she wrote it) and fast-pickin' honky tonk music ("Mornin' Girl"). While many singer-songwriter records strive for diversity, some suffer as a result, leaving listeners to wonder what the artist's true identity is. Luckily, Wood doesn't suffer that problem here. She keeps things short (under 45 minutes), focuses on themes that unite the songs despite their varied musical settings and delivers only choice material. Whether "Two Feet," arguably the sweetest and most mature Dear John letter ever written, "Every Line" (as good a rewrite of Jackson Browne's "These Days" as you're likely to find), or the gentle Jim Reeves-ish "Souvenir," Wood remains in the moment and deep in the song. And while it's true that this world isn't fair, topnotch albums such as Daisies In My Hand serve to give us hope that at the very least it can be bearable. F5 magazine

Mary Alice Wood