Cross the Danger Line

Vocal comparisons to Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton & Alison Krauss - & songwriting comparisons to Loretta Lynn, Nanci Griffith & Harry Chapin - no wonder Rounder Records signed Kimberly M'Carver with only a homemade cassette tape of her songs. Her Rounder Records (Philo) releases, Breathe the Moonlight & Inherited Road, included Jerry Douglas Stuart Duncan & Jeff White, and drew great reviews, nominations (Best Independent Record) & charted on the Americana chart. Her third CD (self produced with Scott Neubert) Cross the Danger Line, contains musicians Aubrey Haynie, Viktor Krauss, Scott Neubert, & harmonies by grammy-winning singer/songwriters Jim Lauderdale & Claire Lynch. Her fourth CD, Hard Waltz, will be released early 2012. Kimberly's songs have also been recorded by others (Serious Doubt, was recorded by Grammy-winner Jeannie Kendall (The Kendalls), w/Allison Moorer on harmony). Her songs have been featured in CD compilations for Texas Monthly, Texas Highways, Kerrville End of the Century, & Rounder Heritage's Singer-Songwriter Collection. Anyone who's ever experienced the country folk of Houston singer-songwriter Kimberly M'Carver knows that she believes in symbolism. For her, train whistles are synonymous with loneliness, and a city like 'Santa Fe' drowns with spirituality ... On the cover of her latest album, 'Cross The Danger Line,' she has stunning long hair the color of a red fox and green eyes. In person her stare is even more penetrating ... one realizes how thin the line is between stardom and the search for it. A listen to 'Cross The Danger Line' makes one wonder why some promoter hasn't helped her cross it ... Combining a mix of Nanci Griffith country-folk modernism and Loretta Lynn blue-collar strength, M'Carver has forged a collection of songs and performances that most country artists would love to call their own ... [Brent] Truitt's fluttering mandolin harmony helps M'Carver and guest vocalist Jim Lauderdale make 'Death and Texas' the type of tongue-in-cheek country Emmylou Harris might indulge in ... Michael D. Clark, Houston Chronicle (complete article can be found at kimberlymcarver.com) A sitting-on-the-beach-house-porch-in-a-breezy-sunset ambience ... M'Carver's voice covers the same full-throated range that Emmylou Harris's does, but has a sweeter, more - dare we say it - 'dulcet' tone, and here she applies it lovingly to seven originals and three covers, including Greg Trooper's 'Ireland' and Van Zandt's underappreciated late-period gem 'Niles River Blues,' ... M'Carver shows clearly with Danger Line that she no longer needs label help in putting out first-rate stuff ... John Nova Lomax, Houston Press (complete article can be found at kimberlymcarver.com) If at some date in the future some industrious independent filmmaker decides to do the EmmyLou Harris story, don't be surprised if Kimberly M'Carver stars as Ms. Harris... she's certainly got the voice. Only M'Carver's may be an even purer voice than Harris's, a voice with wider range and uncannily perfect pitch and tone ... Ms. M'Carver has a Hall of Fame voice, one of those rare vocal instruments most artists would kill to have ... her songwriting just keeps reaching new heights. The fact that her 'Death and Texas' isn't being heard across the radio dial in Houston is another sign that the district attorney needs to investigate some of these local programmers who keep claiming they play 'The Songs of Texas' or 'The Sounds of Texas' or whatever their latest