If you’ve got a taste for those many female folk-artists, here’s another one! Sam Shaber’s Eighty Numbered Streets is yet another album that falls into the genre of passionate women who play guitars. Her songs have a few powerful lyrics and she definitely has Lilith Fair potential. There is a distinct trace of Sheryl Crow’s happy-go-lucky twang in most of her songs. The album is a great example of that kind of music which is impossibly hard to define as either country or rock.
The first few tracks have some artistic merit, but as the album progresses, they get a little hard to withstand. “When the Roses Run Dry” is an incredibly obnoxious song that reminds the listener a little too frighteningly of Dolly Parton’s past hits. Fortunately, Shaber redeems herself somewhat on a few other songs such as “Solitaire” and “Simon Says.” These songs are much more evocative and require more thought than the rest of the tracks on the album. Shaber has a strong voice and a beautiful face, but she can’t quite seem to bring it all together in Eighty Numbered Streets. In keeping with first impressions, the album appears to be decent, but listen to it a couple times through, and you will find it’s nothing special.
Archived article by Ashley Ratner