(Editor’s note: I moved from an apartment into a house starting January 1st, 2020, and I had to toss all my CDs into a big garbage bag during the move. The idea for this feature is I write a review about each CD as I unpack that bag, one CD at a time, and rank them.)

The fifth CD out of the bag

Track listings

1. Little Lies; 2. When All the Stars Align; 3. Blue Bird; 4. Angels; 5. I’m No Elvis Presley; 6. Little Red Boots; 7. Dying of Another Broken Heart; 8. All My Friends; 9. Fall Down or Fly 10. Jimmy Dean; 11. Black Fly; 12. So Sad.

Snapshot review

Lindi Ortega is my favorite discovery in the country music of the last decade. Released in 2011, Little Red Boots announced her arrival to the country music scene. It’s an album of contradictions. It’s tough and vulnerable. It’s inspiration and desperation. I loved it from the first time I heard the sassy opener “Little Lie.” Little Red Boots is the first of a string of four albums Ortega released between 2011 and 2015 with Last Gang Records. I can’t think of any artist in any genre who released four consecutive albums in that time frame as consistently outstanding as Ortega. Talk about the creative juices flowing. Highlights on Little Red Boots include the Dolly Partonesque “Blue Bird,” the rollicking critic’s kiss-off “I’m No Elvis Presley,” the sauntering swagger of the title track, and a rocking ode to “Jimmy Dean.”

My favorite song

My favorite song is “Angels.” It’s a manifestation of the fragility in “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” the classic Hank Williams weeper. The narrator in “Angels” is heartbroken and alone, looking forward to the day when the angels will be by her side. The opening line is straight honky-tonk tearjerker no chaser (“Well, I think I’ll drink myself right back to sleep”), but she doesn’t cry in her beer. In fact, she sounds hopeful thanks to her faith in angels. Depressed but hopeful. Like I said, it’s an album of contradictions, just like life and love.

My favorite lines of my favorite song

“I will be lonely till the day I die.

Then all the angels will be by my side.”

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

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