Robinella

Strange to say, but Robinella already seems like the Grand Dame of Knoxville’s Americana set. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that when she croons country, jazz, and pop standards by the likes of Willie and Patsy et al., she does so with a gentle yet confident vocal authority that makes you believe she knows whereof she speaks. But hers is not so much the world-weary assuredness of the music’s elder statesmen (and stateswomen), but rather a sort of timeless knowing, a sense that she’s already seen much sweetness and much sadness, despite her youth, and was blessed with an ineffable gift for sharing the tender heart of her experience with the rest of us. We are much the better for it. (Mike Gibson)