Serena Jean Music

Serena Jean offers an appropriate title to anyone unfamiliar with her. Town & Country blends elements of traditional country with the melodic chops that allow breezy pop moments to rise up naturally. “Moving On” displays this combo with the verses bathed in pedal steel twang while the chorus skips over into soft rock flavors. By the end, she joins the two styles together without causing even a mild sense of shock. Being equally adept within the blues realm, she manipulates a chilly groove on “For the Birds” and a silky shuffle on “Watch Out” but, unfortunately, simmers rather than belts out on “Voodoo Woman.” Later, a delicate folk singer persona emerges on “Footprints,” but as the number unfolds, a resigned attitude emerges to balance the song’s soft edges.

Although she moves confidently among genres, what Serena Jean does best is paint pictures with words. Opening track, “Life Is Sweet,” offers an enlightening glimpse into a personal background, “Expectations” intimates someone of a strong character who ends up just as vulnerable in the world of romance as anyone else walking the planet. On “Footprints” the person who yearned so much for love earlier on the album recognizes that there’s an expiration date for leaving one’s heart on your sleeve. She uses that heartbreak to her advantage on the album’s final song, “My Darlin’.” The range and engaging qualities of Serena Jean elicits favorable comparisons to Michelle Shocked. Shocked infuses her material with a gospel fervor, while Jean relies on a continuous sense of intimacy in her lyrical and musical approach, which give the songs a fitting home in a small, smoke-filled club as much as on a much large setting.