Begonias

The subtle shades of Caitlin Cary's rich alto find an engaging match in the yearning strains of Thad Cockrell's reedy tenor. As solo artists within the closely-knit Carolina alt-country community, the two have harmonized together before, but this album-length collaboration finds them writing most of the material together and trading vocals on each song. "Please Break My Heart" sounds like the dreamy duet that Patsy Cline and Don Everly never got around to recording. "Warm and Tender Love" ventures into the soulful territory of Percy Sledge, while the folkier lilt of "Something Less Than Something More" evokes the breeziness of "Gentle on My Mind" (though the lyric here is bittersweet).

Mainly, however, these duets extend the classic country tradition, the musical conversations between a man and a woman about what went wrong ("Two Different Things") and how to try to make it right ("Whatever You Want"). Though Cary has proven herself a stellar harmony singer from her formative years in Whiskeytown through her recent work as one of Tres Chicas, here she shows the vocal artistry to command the spotlight and the generosity of spirit to share it. --Don McLeese