Cheryl Wheeler, Different Stripe (688 990)
Middle-aged nostalgia-folk, walking the line between folk and country. She’s got a really rich, melodious voice, and mostly her lyrics are intelligent and quietly wry, self-aware enough to avoid being oversentimental. Her basic sound on this album is balllady and wistful, her and her acoustic guitar, sometimes with strings or piano added. It’s kind of unfortunate, I think, that on this album she crosses the line a little too far towards the 80’s country pop ballad sound. The overproduction erases her personal sense of irony evident from her last album, “Sylvia Hotel,” which has more comic songs on it and seems more balanced. The best ones are the sparsest. (Unless you like the countrypop sound.)

1. Northern Girl-voice/acoustic guitar, kinda twangy at times; slow; edging towards country ballad . . .
* 2. Arrow: light-sounding, solo voice/acoustic guitar. Strings. I like this without knowing why.
3. Walk Around Downtown—twangy-ish guitar. Leaning towards countrypop . . .
4. Moonlight and Roses—starts out piano; no guitar; ridiculous synth strings pop ballad whitney Houston-style
5. Gandhi/Buddha—synthy drums, piano; with some male harmony (cheesy)
* 6. When Fall Comes to New England—simple, classic folksong about nature, pretty, Peter Paul n’ Mary style, simple structure. Guitar, mandolin, solo vocals. Slow and steady tempo.
* 7. Quarter Moon: piano-based, some vocal harmony, some acoustic guitar in background, guitar solo, sneaking in harmonica. Pretty and sad.
8. Aces—acoustic guitar; one of the ridiculously countrypop produced ones.
9. Hard Line to Draw—electric guitar/synth beat start. Same countrypop.
10. Almost—piano and vocal, only. Slow. (A tad reminiscent of the Titanic song, melodically.)
11. Addicted—acoustic guitar mainly, with backup piano. Countrypop one.
12. So Far to Fall—halting piano, strings, acoustic.
13. Don’t Wanna—acoustic start; silly. Overproduced.
14. Miss You More than I’m Mad—acoustic guitar, lost love song; countrypop.
* 15. Sylvia Hotel—I like dis one. Piano, Cheryl.
16. Who Am I Foolin’?—piano, halting tempo. slow steady cymbals & drums enter after awhile, tempo picks up.
17. 75 Septembers—piano/guitar/keyboards. Nice lyrics; supernostalgic.
18. Further and Further Away—guitar, steady midtempo, traveling sound. Piano enters; some male harmony vocals.
* 19. One Love—just Cheryl, on guitar and vocal.