Handle With Care by Kelly Jones

Not

everyone gets to travel the world with their British father while

being raised on a horse farm in rural Washington, or is reared in a

home with a record player as likely to be spinning '60s French pop as American country music. In high school, Kelly trained in dance and shone at classical piano, only later picking up a guitar and – in a characteristically

idiosyncratic move – beginning her career in rock covering classic

pop/rock numbers at French nightclubs when she was studying abroad.

Handle With Care is only Kelly's second album but it sounds like

something you'd expect from someone with far more years under her

belt. Where Brave Heartache was a phenomenal debut, Handle With Care

is quite simply a stunning, confident and mature record that stands

alongside such accomplished contemporaries as Kasey Chambers and Rhett Miller without qualification.

"My first album was really my first attempt at song-writing," says Kelly.

"At that point I was just trying to say something honest while searching for what I was good at. Those were little songs that came out of my journal; songs that stemmed from situations I was trying to make sense of."

Part of being a fast learner is knowing who you can trust. When it

came time to record Handle With Care, Kelly returned to her musical

home of Portland and enlisted the help of the musicians who'd

encouraged her from the start. A group of talented friends – producer

Patrick Tetreault and Drew Grow from Careen and guitarist Jaycob Van

Auken – helped Kelly realize her vision.

"There was this collective fusion of tastes happening,” Kelly says of the recording. Jaycob is an amazing guitarist, Patrick has an incredible pop sensibility and Drew, a talented song-writer, would faithfully challenge the arrangements to ensure an element of unpredictability. Everyone was doing their different thing, but applying their strengths to my

songs."

The record was recorded at Ripcord Studio in Vancouver, Washington,

(where Willie Nelson is rumored to have recorded) mixed at

Supernatural in Oregon City, Oregon and mastered in Nashville,

Tennessee – and the sound reflects that geography. Although

undeniably polished, the record feels far more Northwest than Nashville.

"I have two very distinct sides to me" Kelly remarks. "There's the 'country side,' which guards everything organic and wide-eyed in me, and then there's the 'city side' that’s always curious, searching for diversity and new experiences. I feel the two pulling at me constantly, and I'm always trying to balance them."

Balance seems to come easily to Kelly. While there's a sadness to much of her music, it's a sweet sadness – you can almost imagine her sitting alone in her bedroom, dreaming away the heartache. There's a fragility and vulnerability (sentiments perfectly conveyed by her sometimes girlish vocals,) but also an underlying strength and determination.

Handle With Care shows an artist who's constantly learning

and evolving but never apologizing. On the album opener, the upbeat

pop-rock number "Stuck Being Pretty", Kelly declares "I'm stuck being

pretty, pretty down on myself." On "Make Me Cry," she admits, "I'm

not happy feeling fine. Won't you make me cry?"

The noir-ish "Consolation" is melancholy at its most hauntingly

beautiful, while "Panic" finds hope at the most irrational moment.

Even heartbreakers like "Out of Nothing," "What's So Wrong" and

"Heart Like Mine" find the optimist within. "Lonesome Heart" is a

warning to a potential lover that the narrator is damaged goods and a

dangerous proposition disguised as a beguiling, steel-guitar drenched

country shuffle.

Kelly winds the album down with the languid acoustic number "Don't

Forget Me." There's no danger that you will. Handle With Care is

just the latest installment from a gifted singer/songwriter who's just

hitting her stride.

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