Trailer Bride - Trailer Bride (1997)

Trailer Bride's remarkably self-assured debut features many of the best songs in the North Carolina-based band's entire alt-country catalog. Distinguishing herself from many of her peers with her deadpanned and droll delivery, lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Melissa Swingle sounds at once bemused and bored by life, as she winks and smirks her way through lines like "She might just win a million off of Ed McMahon." The result is a slightly sassy, slightly cynical trip through the bleary-eyed backwoods of Trailer Bride: from the rockin' rollicking "Let Mama Drive" to the slow-paced sway of "Arrowheads," the foursome's self-titled album is rarely anything but entirely depressing in its rustic realism, as Swingle confesses that she "can't see nothin' worth dying for." For fans of the most desolate, macabre country music, however, Trailer Bride is certainly somethin' worth living for.~Trailer Bride Review by Jimmy Draper