Starlight Hotel (Signature Sounds, 2011)

Zoe Muth's singing voice is a lot like Emmylou Harris' vocals. She's similar to Harris in a few other ways, as well. For one, she sounds prematurely old, just as Harris did when she first started. Secondly, she loves traditional country music with a passion. Along with her Lost High Rollers, Muth has gifted the world with a collection of music that is straight, no chaser.

This album opens with I've Been Gone, which rings out with a boisterous brass horn section, not unlike Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. Another clear highlight is the honky-tonk lament If I Can't Trust You With A Quarter (How Can I Trust You With My Heart?). The girl in this song thinks she's found a winner, until she finds out he's never heard John Prine. Any man that doesn't appreciate Prine, simply cannot be Mr. Right. The track is beautiful, traditional country, with plenty of steel guitar on it.

Muth also knows her way around quieter material, which exemplified by the hushed, acoustic traveling music of Harvest Moon Blues. Just when you start to believe that they just don't make 'em the way they used to, Zoe Muth And Lost High Rollers comes along to restore your faith.