Gifts and Burdens

After four acclaimed CDs, the former Holly Figueroa and founder of the Indiegrrl Network changes her name after a period of personal upheaval and returns with disc that's as penetrating and lasting a listen as 2005's formidable How It Is.

Though she laces her influences and similarities (Emmylou, Shawn Colvin) with the tangled roots of Americana, O'Reilly's music resiliently her own. Never shying away from our common foibles, she manages the neat and nearly impossible trick of sounding both compellingly contemporary and ancient simultaneously; making keen observations as Lay Them Down, One More Time, Leonard Cohen's Everybody Knows, Richard Buckner's Boys The Night will Bury You and the title track echo not only from the dark hollows of our psyches and souls but also from the dark, dark hills.

Track List:

Edited by: David N. Pyles
(dnpyles@acousticmusic.com)