Derek Webb’s better half has raised her Q factor considerably this year, first with the dazzling Ampersand EP with husband Webb and now Red Balloon, her sixth solo album. Split into two sides – literally, the album contains two CDs, each housing five songs – the album features the kind of wistful acoustic pop that Sheryl Crow might make after listening to a bunch of Sarah McLachlan records, though Crow hasn’t written a song as catchy as “Lock and Key” or “On the Outside” in years. Sometimes the album gets a tad too maudlin, as on “Saturn’s Fields,” but there is no denying that McCracken is a gifted singer and songwriter in an age where anyone with a guitar and a notebook filled with Dear John letters fancies him or herself a gifted songwriter. That she’s not playing these songs on a larger stage is borderline criminal. (Sandra McCracken Music)
