Though she's barely old enough to bypass juvie in her native Ohio, Lydia Loveless is a full-grown country outlaw at the ripe old age of 21. Her big, brawny voice has earned comparisons to Neko Case and Loretta Lynn, but her spirit seems to roll with Richard Hell and Charles Bukowski. She makes one heady cocktail out of country, punk and literary influences.
Album opener "Bad Way to Go" begins with a bang and a clatter courtesy of drummer Parker Chandler, whom Loveless knows as Dad. A loud, fuzzed-out guitar and a frenzied banjo wrestle for the stage before Loveless halts the chaos with a delightfully snotty message: "Turn my heart to paper but seal it with a kiss/So you can write me a love letter in the gravel with your piss." As if she hasn't proven her bad-ass status, she pokes fun at one of country music's most famous rebels, Steve Earle, with a sidesplitting joke-tune about how he pines for her as she pines for his foxy son, Bloodshot labelmate Justin Townes Earle.
