Album Notes

THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE
September 29, 2006
Record review by MARGARET MOSER


Idgy Vaughn
“Origin Story”

"Some debut albums set up careers with the promise of good things to come. Idgy Vaughn delivered Origin Story without warning, a recording so potent it can't be ignored. "Look into my eyes; now do I look like the dangerous type?" she beckons on "Dragging the River," while smacking a honky-tonk punch in the mouth to "Mister Wrong," co-written with Pauline Reese. Vaughn's own story is so marketable it reads like a tabloid headline: "Single Mom Waitresses, Lottery-Winning Customer Finances Record." That happened when she worked in Buda; the rest of her story unfolds on "Midwestern Biography." Musically, Origin Story falls on the country side of Americana, serving literate stabs at heartbreak and heartache ("Attic Window," "Redbone Hound") with wise and witty retorts ("Small Town Girls"). Occasionally, she veers maudlin ("Over You"), yet even her wry resilience doesn't prepare the listener for "Saint Francis Fire," the devastating account of 12 schoolgirls who died in a Christmas pageant fire. That storytelling sensibility sends her right to the head of the class, where she need not cheat off Eliza Gilkyson or Sara Hickman, because Idgy Vaughn's done her homework. Origin Story just might be the local debut album of the year.

[awarded three-and-a-half stars out of four stars]

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid%3A406128


Idgy Vaughn is big trouble.

She’s trouble for those who like singer-songwriters to fit nice and quietly into single-serving genre molds like “folk,” “country” or “rock.” She’s trouble for those who don’t like their sad songs leavened with humor, or their catchy, silly songs rubbing elbows with songs that punch you in the gut and wrench your heart out. Idgy’s trouble for those folks because she does it all, without apology, prejudice or even knowing any better. Which, of course, also makes her all kinds of trouble for anyone who just considers themselves a sucker for a great song, whatever the flavor — and doubly so for suckers for a great voice.

Idgy Vaughn is trouble in the sense that she excels at throwing people off their guard, and then knocking them flat. Misjudge her by the way she might traipse onto a stage in a sun dress and cowboy boots, all playful red curls, big green eyes and bigger smile, and she’ll blindside you with a song she wrote about raising her daughter as a single mother in the projects, or an equally devastating character study of a co-worker she knew during her “Truckstop Waitress” days. Sometimes she surprises even herself. At the 2004 Kerrville Folk Festival, when her big violin solo during her howler of a song about needing to find herself a “Redbone Hound” went tragically awry due to a broken bow, she broke down in a fit of laughter, then rallied for a finish that brought the audience to its feet — cheering as though they’d just seen her pull a flaming DC-10 out of a nose dive for a safe landing. She ended up being one of the six winners of that year’s prestigious New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters.

Idgy Vaughn’s debut album, Origin Story, was produced by Paul Pearcy with a veritable A-team of Austin’s best and most in-demand players, none of whom quite managed to steal the spotlight from Idgy herself. Which could mean big trouble for anyone averse to the possibility that the brightest, freshest new voice on the Texas music scene just might be an unsocialized farm kid from the wide-open spaces of the Midwest.

Looking for trouble? The good kind of trouble? Idgy’s got it. But don’t say we didn’t warn you.


ORIGIN STORY, Idgy Vaughn's 11-song debut album, boasts a veritable A-list of Austin giants. Musicians include: producer/drummer Paul Pearcy (Darden Smith, Jerry Jeff Walker, Terri Hendrix); guitarists Redd Volkaert (Merle Haggard), Rob Gjersoe (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, The Flatlanders, The Greencards), Marvin Dykhuis (Tish Hinojosa, Jimmy LaFave, South Austin Jug Band), and Guy Forsyth (solo artist and founding member of the Asylum Street Spankers); pedal steel player Lloyd Maines (Terri Hendrix, Joe Ely, Dixie Chicks, Richard Buckner); dobro player Cindy Cashdollar (Asleep at the Wheel, Bob Dylan); fiddler Eamon McLoughlin (The Greencards), keyboard players Riley Osbourn (Marcia Ball, Willie Nelson, W.C. Clark) and Earl Poole Ball (Johnny Cash, The Byrds, Buck Owens, Gram Parsons); and bassist Glenn Fukunaga (Eliza Gilkyson, Terri Hendrix, Dixie Chicks), and many, many others. Special vocal accompaniments were performed by Texas singer-songwriters Ruthie Foster and Pauline Reese. ORIGIN STORY is a completely independent full-length album.