Let me be completely forthright: I was already amused by You, Me and a Redhead before I listened to it. My hair's red. If you don't have red hair, you may not be as prepared to be charmed; you'll have to actually listen to it, but by the time you're done, you'll understand the whole charm thing. Kerri Powers has a twangy accent that comes from only God knows where, as she's supposedly from Boston. She sings the title track in a Loretta Lynn-ish style, with a strong-as-hell, slightly raspy alto that eats into your memory the same way strong coffee will jolt you awake. Powers gives the traditional country theme, the green-eyed monster jealousy (hey, that suddenly explains part of "Jolene" to me), a modern twist: her sweet patootie hasn't even cheated on her yet. She's just dreaming about it. I'd love to hear her cover "Your Cheatin' Heart".

Powers' lyrics aren't as scorpion-bite smart as Lucinda Williams, but this is her first album and she may be getting there. It's alt-rock/country music (with lashings of rough-hearted blues) that you can actually admire; on "What's a Lonesome Girl to Do" you can hear the reverb on her guitar strings from a thousand miles away. She injects an emotional and touching little Dolly Parton vibrato into both "Lonesome Girl" and "Nolan's Song". I realise, listening to Powers, why I hate popular country music today: people like Alan Jackson and Shania Twain have taken the drama out of the songs and made them slick and airbrushed as a magazine cover. "Nolan's Song", a lullaby/encomium for the narrator's son, is touching, but not hyperglycemic -- the type of song upon which David Wilcox has built his following.

Powers will leave you gasping on the floor, damn tired after listening to You, Me and a Redhead, but you'll get the catharsis that Aristotle promises us is the hallmark of any good drama. You'll also get the resoundingly twangy guitar work that any country musician worth his or her steel strings will deliver -- check out "Self-Made Man" in particular -- plus mandolin, dobro and lap steel for a richer texture.

A friend of mine will try to steal this CD the minute he gets his hands on it, and that's the highest praise I can deliver, for he has the most immaculately chosen -- not to mention the broadest -- alt-country collection I've ever seen. But he'll have to hunt down his own copy; mine's spoken for.