Fusing traditional country instrumentation (heavy on the acoustic guitars, mandolin and fiddle) with the artistic inclination of a folkish singer/songwriter, the debut album by Houston-born, Austin-based Melissa Sellers mixes and matches genres in the classic polyglot Austin style. There are even a couple of electric blues tunes here, "Never Again" and "Turn Me Loose," that recall Sellers' Austin compatriot Lou Ann Barton. Overall, it's the most traditional material that works best, like the jaunty 2-step "My Conscience" and the weepy pedal steel barroom ballad "A Drink (Is Easier to Swallow Than My Pride)." Sellers has an appealingly brassy voice (she comes by it honestly, as the daughter of local Austin country/blues favorite Poodle Lynn) best shown on the sassy "It Takes Two," and her band sticks to the rootsy basics throughout, avoiding both cliché and overembellishment. There's little new on Deep South Austin, but what Melissa Sellers does, she does quite well.
© Stewart Mason /TiVo