Her CD is a torchy, seductive blend of country ballads and rockers that seems closer to Janis Joplin than Tammy Wynette.
Welch's sublime blend of country, blues and folk traditions has led to sold-out shows in Australia.
The group's style, at once infectious and alienating, is an imaginative blend of country music twanginess and aggressive industrial noise.
She speaks lovingly of the work of Southern writers and of the early-20th-century blues music that influenced her father's country songs and to some extent her own blend of country, rock, folk and pop.
She has had a terrible kitchen for 18 years (she's counted), an unappealing blend of country (fake barn-siding cabinets) and 70's contemporary ("the light fixtures are sort of disco," she says).
For Peck -- a blend of country mouse and city mouse himself, raised in Decatur, Ill., and then a resident of Chicago and New York City -- writing about city life versus a rural existence is nothing new.
This fireworks-and-music special, broadcast live from the Charles River Esplanade, with Keith Lockhart conducting, includes performances by Gretchen Wilson; Big & Rich (Big Kenny and John Rich and Cowboy Troyoy, whose blend of country and rap has been called hick-hop.
ALSO AROUND TOWN COUNTRY POTPOURRI -- A blend of country, folk, bluegrass, Irish and klezmer music will be performed on violin, mandolin, banjo, guitar and bass in a concert by Bob Green and Company; today 3 p.m.; Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Veterans Memorial Hall, 1000 Richmond Terrace, near Snug Harbor Road; free; (718) 448-2500.
"While no single city has naming rights as the birthplace of rock 'n' roll, the elements that made rock 'n' roll — the blend of country, blues and the big beat — were being created at King Records," said Larry Nager, former pop music editor for several Cincinnati dailies and the author of the book "Memphis Beat".
As with any good production of Peer Gynt, one is left pondering the nature of self; and Paddy Cuneen's music, with its blend of country and western and simple folk-melodies, is as integral as Naomi Wilkinson's set which sets the action against a towering steel gantry.
