Best Independent Female Country Artist Worth Signing: Casey Kessel
Think about all the gauzily simplistic nostalgia currently clogging country radio. Then think about this: “Mama won first prize for her cherry pie that summer I met you / The air was sticky on the banks of the ‘Sippi, smack dab in the middle of June.” Say it out loud. Note the internal rhymes and sly evocation of budding sensuality and momentary innocence (hint: it could have been apple pie, but it ain’t). Or better yet, cue up the title cut of Casey Kessel’s Ripple in the Water, from whence those lines derive. Florida native Kessel passed on a development deal with RCA a few years ago but has since found success as a songwriter—she co-wrote Danielle Peck’s current hit “Findin’ a Good Man” and two cuts on Julie Roberts’ Men & Mascara. Kessel has an instantly appealing voice of her own, and Ripple (co-produced by ex-Maverick Robert Reynolds) suggests what country radio could sound like with a little less computer-generated special effects and a little more cleverness and humanity. Note to execs: she’s pretty, too.
—CHRIS NEAL (The Nashville Scene)