USD Magazine Fall 2006

enhanced by DeMeyer’s graceful guitar fingering. The energy kicks into gear with “Mama’s on a Mission,” an autobiographical ditty that catalogues the status of various family members in the first verse: “Mama’s on a mission dishing out the wisdom / Papa got his wings and he ain’t coming back / Granny’s in the back yard kicking up the daisies / Sister’s preaching to the choir from her Cadillac.”

DeMeyer’s lyrics are by turns poignant and rollicking, the musicianship uniformly crisp and soulful. “This album totally reflects me,” she says. “The people who are on it, the way it sounds, the way it was made, all of it is me. Before, I listened to too many people’s opinions,

and things got convoluted.”’ This time around, things are different. “Brady, the producer, wanted it to sound exactly how I wanted it to sound. And that came through in the vibe during the sessions. That comes through when you listen to it.”

I w i l l b e y ou r s wo r d I w i l l b e y ou r p e a r l Al l t h i s w r i t i ng on t h e wa l l Mu s t b e g o o d f o r s ome t h i ng a f t e r a l l

“This album is more hopeful, more spiritual

than my other records. I went through a lot

until I finally found my true self.”

AT T H E L I T T L E F OX T H E AT R E , the singer sits in a straight- back chair, alone with her guitar. She is in full command. She catches people’s eyes and gives them a little crinkly grin, as if sharing a private joke. She has a timelessness about her; while she’d seem right at home in a black-and-white Dust Bowl photo by Dorothea Lange, it’s just as easy to picture her galloping across a rodeo ring ready to show a calf a thing or two with her lariat, or to imagine her featured in the latest CMT country music video. She’s got one of those faces that manages to look simultane- ously vulnerable and tough, and her smile, while dazzling, has a hint of suffering behind it, as if she’s seen some things in her day. The audience is rapt. Everyone is paying close attention. “I wrote this song for my husband,” she says, flashing him an incandescent smile. And when she launches into the bittersweet strains of “My Everything,” she sounds a bit like Sheryl Crow with a hint of Emmylou Harris thrown in. Truth be told, she sounds exactly like Brigitte DeMeyer.

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