After scoring a whole host of accolades in her native Australia, Kristy Cox ought to garner further success courtesy of her sophomore album for Billy Blue Records. Shortlisted for the International Bluegrass Music Awards the past five years as Emerging Artist of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year, she was also a finalist in the 2019 IBMA Momentum Awards for Vocalist of the Year. It’s a tack she has pursued since a young age, and over the years, her efforts have paid off by opening for major acts and making appearances on television and major festivals across Australia, Europe, and the USA.
Produced by Jerry Salley, Let It Burn features the talents of Jason Roller on acoustic guitar and fiddle, Justin Moses on mandolin and resophonic guitar, Aaron McDaris playing banjo, and Jeff Partin on upright bass, as well as guest vocalists John Meador and Jimmy Fortune, and harmony vocals from Salley and Magnolia Williams. While all the songs are written by others, save one — In My Dreams, a cowrite with Meador — Cox’s personable approach makes each her own. In so doing, she shares a heartfelt delivery that adds a most engaging element to the album overall.
Let It Burn conveys two types of songs in general — those are upbeat and infectious (the title track, Some Things Don’t Go Together and Steady as the Rain in particular) and others that take the form of heartburn ballads (Broke Down in Georgia, Front Porch of Paradise, In My Dreams, and God Never Made a Mountain being the most pronounced), providing proof that Cox is adept at shifting her stance and varying her emotional palette. At the same time, certain songs go beyond standard fare — the down home narrative Sally Flatt and the jovial and jaunty, This Side pf Blue. They add further verve and variety, and, at the same time, further affirm Cox’s personable presence.
“How lucky am I,” she sings on the album’s final entry, and while she may be describing the good fortune that life has brought her, it’s abundantly clear that all she’s gained has come by way of talent and tenacity. How lucky the rest of us are that we can be witness to her resources.
