Diane Zeigler is a Montpelier, Vermont singer-songwriter. On her third album, Paintbrush, she sings in a short variety of acoustic styles, but after each foray to the edge rolls back into an modest New Folk groove. Many of her songs are subjective and present relationships, dying towns, and memorials for relatives and colleagues (including David Carter). Zeigler has a skill at writing cryptic and erudite verses that make a listener ask "What did that really mean?" "Kathleen," for example, seems to be about an "unequal" twin leaving, going "south." "Just remember that I know you well and I know that a shadow can cast a spell...." "Prickly Pine" is more interesting for its primitive country arrangement. Of love she sings, "she's got no fear of the prickly waters or the needle of the prickly pine." Celtophiles will enjoy the quiet "Wild Mountain Thyme" that closes the album and a reel arrangement by The Sevens that backs the contemporary title track, "Paintbrush."

Karen Mal is originally from New England, but now lives in the Austin, Texas hill country. She is joined on the acoustic Mercury's Wings by several identifiable Texas musicians, including singers Kelly Willis and Christine Albert. Some of the songs are written or co-written by Austin songwriter Jeff Talmadge and/or by the late Fred Alley. Mal writes songs about life, about love, children, and friends. Mal was a Kerrville New Folk finalist in 2001 and 2002 and has a real gift for words, for literary devices. "My love is a bullet that flies from a gun. Aimless and eyeless, strikes the innocent ones," she writes in "My Love is Blind." "Under the stars he loved on a quiet night, His soul burst out of its seams on Mercury's Wings," she writes of Alley's death in the title track, "On Mercury's Wings." Even sharper, Mal shows a real sensitivity for complex human thoughts and relationships in her songs; her own soul is really bursting out of its seams here. The backing musicians, including herself on guitar and nice mandolin, are wonderful, but many of the songs sound similar. Maybe having great Austin musicians behind you makes you sound like Generic Austin! But people who follow Texas songwriters will likely love this album; not surprisingly the album is a little reminiscent of Jeff Talmadge's understated CDs.

Louise Peacock grew up in Portugal and now lives in Fergus, Ontario. This preview CDR, 10 Weezy Pieces, was sponsored in part by the Canadian government. It is an enigmatic item, and probably should be classified as grassroots pop and jazz. Some of Peacock's (known as "Weezie") compositions are sung by Weezie herself, but the FACTOR sponsored country-folk, jazz, and pop tracks are sung by singer/songwriter Nonie Crate. Crate has a pretty, wholesome voice and the "garage band" that backs the album sound good together. Weezie's lyrics are fairly straightforward and don't say much that hasn't been said in much the same way; it's almost as if she were intentionally using a template, like a music reviewer including all those phrases like, "a heartfelt album" and "lots of energy"! Many of the songs that Weezie sings are like jazz standards, so perhaps this type of lyrics is her model. One track that is lyrically a little more original is "Reality Hasn't Set In," about guys who really don't understand how serious life is... yet. Lots of symbolic SUVs here!

[Judith Gennett]