The gothic country of Frazer’s ’90s band Tarnation shared much with 16 Horsepower and The Handsome Family?a Georgia-raised pastor’s daughter, the South inspired Frazer’s poetry. While we await the follow-up to 2001’s Indoor Universe, these four-track rarities provide ample nourishment. Some of these songs appeared on Gentle Creatures (’95) and Mirador (’97), but not this nakedly beautiful. Frazer’s voice has a metallic-folk edge which, allied to mariachi guitar, floods “An Awful Shade Of Blue” and “The Hand” with harsh desert light. Yet when the Morricone sun fades, she peals with the white-soul hum of Laura Nyro.
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