Seger Blurs Lilith Fair, Lilith Fare

Three of Five Stars

Like writers, musicians are ultimately thieves. They take snippets of their various influences and conjure them into a style that is all their own.

But given the breakneck pace of the music industry, musicians keep putting out albums when they're still an uncluttered mass of influences - what makes these musicians special, what makes them worth listening to, can get lost in the mix. Enter Shea Seger, a Texas-born musician who traveled to London for four months to create her debut album, The May Street Project.

Describing the album as the sum of her 20 years of life experiences, Seger has made an album that steals a little from almost every female musician that came before her, making her debut a one-woman Lilith Fair concert.

But in Seger's case, the line between Lilith Fair and Lilith Fare is very thin. Is she just a hack with a good sense of what to rip off?

Sometimes she rides an Emmylou Harris vibe, only to start channeling Ani DiFranco without warning, and for added fun, Seger's singing devolves into the Alanis Morrisette babble-singing people either love or despise.

But not every influence is golden - things get down-right frightening on "Clutch," in which you need to make sure you're not listening to Lisa Stansfield (shudder). But if you can step back from what PJ Harvey called the "guess the influences" game, it's clear that Seger's no hack - just an underdeveloped talent.

Seger's best moments are the ones where the ghost of every "Women in Rock" article disappears; you finally get a hint of Seger's capabilities.

And luckily her talents are considerable, albeit well-buried. May Street is an ambitious mix of her Texan origins, the chic of her London recording sessions, and the beats of sound mixer Commissioner Gordon (of Lauryn Hill fame).

The album is a trippy, spaced-out country-blues hybrid, something you'd experience if you listened to Shelby Lynne's I Am Shelby Lynne and Beth Orton's Trailer Park simultaneously. Think "Portishead in Memphis" and you get the right idea of this album's innovative take on Southern musical terrain.

Part of the formula is Seger's subtle, bluesy voice. She has a slight rasp to her voice, but not in an artificial, I-sound-40-years-older-than-I-am manner.

On her first single, "Last Time," Seger's vocals suffer from babble-singing. But on the few moments she lets loose, Seger just rides the bouncing Barry White-meets-Fatboy Slim rhythm and produces a performance with a passion you just don't hear anymore.

And the passion in her voice, no matter who she sounds like in any given song, is May Street's saving grace. Her lyrics aren't groundbreaking, but their power lies solely on Seger's ability to deliver them with conviction.

Unfortunately, considering Seger is an artist with such potential, these moments are scarce.

And although her talent still needs a little ripening, you can expect some great music in the future once Shea Seger gets all that Lilith Fare out of her system and finds her own voice.

Russ Lane can be reached at wlane@email.unc.edu.