John Peel was obsessive about Laura Cantrell. She didn't sound like the kind of thing he would normally go for: the sound and (particularly) the voice are so clean; and disciplined, unlike his usual predilection for the 'unhinged'. After she had three songs in the 2000 Festive Fifty, some of his audience were clearly following him, and I decided to join them. All in all, Laura did five Peel sessions, and Peel famously described Not the Tremblin' Kind as "my favourite record of the last ten years and possibly my life".
It took me a while to get it, I have to admit. I took a mini-disc recording of this on my West Coast train journey in 2001 (mentioned before), and shortly after I got back I took D to see her at The Pheasant at Sheffield Lane Top. But it wasn't until I saw her play twice at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2003 that I really got bitten.
Lucy reminds me that we also saw Laura supporting Ralph Stanley at the Barbican later that year.
Just a few weeks ago, I downloaded Humming By the Flowered Vine
Another thing I really like is that about a third of the songs on each album are written by Laura, and the others are covers. But you can't tell which are which without checking the credits. I don't know quite why, but I find that impressive.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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