Strange as it may sound, Sara Hamilton actually left Austin to become a songwriter. With degree in hand, she packed up her songwriting vocation in 2002 and headed for Texas' other music hotbed, Dallas/Fort Worth, and the friendly confines of home in Mansfield, Texas. There, she found a welcoming social structure that allowed her to quietly sock away a bagful of solid tunes in the vein of waltz king Bruce Robison and balladeer Jim Lauderdale, while gaining experience behind the mic at coffeehouses, cigar joints and the occasional honky-tonk. Along the way, a chance introduction to a Texas music insider led to a friendship and, eventually, to management representation.Flash to the first of many "homeboy hookups" - a greasy-spoon meeting with multi-talented artist/producer/playwright Jesse Dayton. The "Country Soul Brother" quickly realized that there were enough stars in Sara's songbook to make a "kickass, smart Americana record."Over flapjacks and caffeine, the plan for Call My Name was hatched, and pre-production of the project began on the spot. Time was of the essence. Dayton had only a small window of opportunity for the project before a West Coast tour and the beginning of his next project, the score for the Rob Zombie movie The Devil's Reject. Dayton's studio sidekick, engineer Steve Chadie, would also sandwich the project in between sessions with Los Lonely Boys and the quirky duo of Willie Nelson and Jessica Simpson (Dukes of Hazzard soundtrack)."I felt incredibly fortunate to be working on my debut project at the same time that my producer's album was in the Americana Top Ten and my engineer was nominated for a Grammy," Sara says, referring to Dayton's Country Soul Brother and Chadie's nod for Record of the Year (Los Lonely Boys, Heaven). "The timing felt right. There was a ton of energy and enthusiasm within the team."Dayton plucked eight originals from a constellation of solid songs, added tunes by Hayes Carll and blues legend Memphis Minnie, and gave each the star treatment. The result is a disc that sparkles with songwriting clarity and vocal purity.Dayton's eclectic production style shines, with everything from boogie-woogie piano on "Better Than I Used to Be," to the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-like guitar intro on "Back My Way," and the powerful George Harrison-esque slide guitar crescendo on the title track.The disc reveals Sara's songwriting range to be equally diverse, with crossover friendly tracks "Motel Key" (co-written with Heather Morgan) and "Call My Name" cozied up to straight-up honky-tonker "Lord Help My Soul" and the sultry tear-jerking waltz, "Lonely Like Me."The closing track is a back-and-forth duo of Memphis Minnie's ragtime blues ditty "Ain't No Use Tryin' to Tell on Me" that punctuates what the rest of the album already proves: Hamilton and Dayton are a musical match made in the heavens.
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