After getting fed up with the music business, , always true to herself, walked away and formed her own label in 2010. Apparently, she's had a change of heart. appears on the stalwart label distributed by . Recorded at Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana with a small band and a few select guests, the set's ten tracks run a gamut of styles 's explored in the past, from West Coast singer/songwriter musings and New Orleans- and Stax-inspired R&B to rock and Americana, woven inside her own signature brand of sophisticated adult pop. Self-produced with assistance from her music director , wrote or co-wrote everything here. Two fine songs, "Love Is Strong" and "Be in the Now," were co-written with . The former is a ballad that weds -esque countrypolitan to post-psych pop. The latter features rootsy flatpicking and slide guitars offset by a drum break and a funky electric piano line worthy of . The hardest rocking cut, "Down Here," a militant anthem to tolerance, recalls 's "Southern Man" in places. It would be right at home on contemporary country radio -- if the song's pro-gay stance didn't contradict the format's radically conservative views. The easy retro soul groove on "Sold the Devil (Sunshine)" co-written with , reveals just how easy it is for to deliver maximum feeling in a song. She doesn't sing the lyrics -- she is them. "Following You" delivers a sparse, spooky intro that transforms into a lovely, minor-key romantic ballad played by a trio of on acoustic guitar and piano, on guitar and pedal steel, and guesting on n'goni. She's at her very best, however, on the album's bookends. Opener "Paper Van Gogh" is breezy, yet utterly convincing West Coast singer/songwriter pop. The closing title track (one of two co-written with ), is classic country, complete with whining pedal steel, balanced electric and acoustic guitars, brushed snares, and a hip bridge. Her protagonist expresses profound and unswerving empathy for a loved one shaken by hard times. is confident, assured, and fiercely independent. What ties its various threads together is the songwriter's unguarded heart, expressed by her near iconic vocal prowess, and we've come to expect nothing less from . ~ Thom Jurek