The first thing I noticed about Kim Buchanan is her beautiful voice. The opening track on her debut release Will I Ever Know? is a simple acoustic guitar-based folk song that gathers momentum as she spins the story and then fades to a whisper of wind.

She is like a fairy tale storyteller, touching on themes of love and life as well as society and cynicism and the courage to think beyond the borders of the norm with songs like "Borderline Minds," "Portraits" and "The Rain." "That Could Be Now!" is a frank statement about the reality of our view of the past -- Buchanan forces the listener to face that the nostalgia about things past and the feeling that we have somehow progressed as a society is often misplaced.

Her pen turns to love on "We Belong," which almost has a Carpenters feel to it. It meanders and comes back to a simple statement of love in the chorus. She tackles the idea of personal faith in "Father & Son," which sounds like it hits very close to home.

Most of this record is made up of very folk-based songs with non-folk subject matter. Buchanan does original well; and her ethereal but strong voice suits the simple music and poetic lyrics.