I reviewed Vivian Leva's debut album, Time is Everything, in this space on 10 March 2018. I liked it and looked forward to her next project, anticipating a great deal from it. Leva hails from a prominent roots-music family; her parents are James Leva & Carol Elizabeth Jones, known and respected on the oldtime scene. From the evidence of Time, the daughter seemed more drawn to country, both vintage and modern, though the Appalachian influences, including a genuine trad ballad from Texas Gladden via Alan Lomax, also registered here and there.

On their current, eponymous disc, Leva and Riley Calcagno (co-producer of the earlier album) offer up lyrics like these (from Leva's "My Teardrops Say"):

My teardrops say that I love you
With every goodbye kiss
Oh my teardrops say that I love you
Each night I sleep alone and reminisce.

This is the sticky stuff of contemporary country-pop, though at least less suffocatingly arranged. The son of another well-known couple, Cajun musicians Marc and Ann Savoy, Joel Savoy produces, a wise choice because the nimble Savoy highlights melody while also allowing Leva's & Calcagno's voices plenty of space.

The songs seem to get better the deeper one gets into the recording. For example, "You Don't See Me" boasts an unexpected, affecting British-folk tone. "Good & Gone" takes a standard theme -- leavin' -- and gorgeously insinuates itself into a listener's ear and heart. Calcagno's "On Account of You," the most oldtimey number here, reworks the wonderful "Bowling Green," ordinarily a fiddle/banjo tune, with new lyrics and a fresh, brisk arrangement. Even the "Teardrops" lyrics quoted above, bland and sentimental in print, are set to a decent melody and end in a serviceable song. As always Leva's singing is a marvel.

So what am I complaining about? All I can say is that some of the songs sound blandly disappointing in my hearing. It would be hard to persuade me that the world needs more country-pop songs, which is pretty much all mainstream country is these days. It seems doubtful that Leva & Calcagno are looking to compete with Nashville acts more affixed to crass commerce than to creative art. The songs, all by Leva, Calcagno or co-writes, shouldn't have to conform to formula, in other words to the recycling of love sentiments (e.g., as in the pure sap of "Hollowed Hearts," "Love & Chains" and "Red Hen") floating atop airy pop chords.

In some ways, albeit not in others, Leva reminds me of the early Emmylou Harris, who made her mark as an interpreter of solid trad country and storytelling countrified folk songs. I guess that's what I miss: strong narratives as opposed to recitations of often-expressed romantic complaints. Not that there aren't things to like here -- there are, indeed -- but next time one hopes for such more consistently. The problem is hardly a lack of talent. It may be a failure of harder, more focused writing.