The Green Room: Laura Cantrell

A lot of country music fans may feel close to the legendary singer Kitty Wells. But how many people can actually claim they grew up close to her?

Laura Cantrell can. 

"We were neighbors in Nashville when I was a girl," Cantrell said. "My dad was a huge fan of hers. It took a while for me to feel the same. But when it did, I really came to love her music. Clearly, that was how this whole thing started for me."

This "whole thing" is Cantrell's luminous new record, "Kitty Wells Dresses." In it, the critically-acclaimed Cantrell finally pays homage to her old neighbor, doing songs sung by Wells and singing a song she and Amy Allison wrote together about the legendary Nashville songbird.

Cantrell

"Not enough people really know about Kitty," said Cantrell, who's a Columbia-educated sophisticate with strong rural roots. "In the early '50s, when Nashville was still ascending as the country music capital, it was pretty much dominated by men. Run by producers like Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins and singers like Hank Williams; those sorts of guys. No one believed that a woman could be any more than window-dressing, than a one-hit wonder."

Kitty Wells, Cantrell says, proved them all wrong.

"After her huge hit, 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,' she managed to score hit after hit, many of them written by her husband, Johnnie Wright. It was unprecedented and she paved the way for Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and many others," she said. "She's not known as The Queen Of Country Music for nothing."

And Cantrell wears something like that title for her kind of country music as well.

Ever since her 2000 breakout album, "Not The Tremblin' Kind," Cantrell has been weaving her subtle magic for an ever-growing audience. Counting folks like They Might Be Giants, Elvis Costello and the late legendary deejay, John Peel,  as her fans, she's been trying and succeeding to remind people what country music should sound like: subtle, sad, without a desperate eye on the current trends.

And how have Wells and her husband (both in their 90s and still married!) taken to the record?

"They were a little worried at first, when I told them I was going forward," Cantrell said. "But once they knew I was serious, they really talked my ear off with suggestions. Kitty and Johnnie both wanted to make sure I didn't just do the popular numbers; that I should dig a little deeper into the catalog. Johnnie was particularly fun to talk to. He's 97 and what a pistol!"

Cantrell, the mother of a 5-year-old daughter, has been pacing herself this spring, touring tosupport this record, trying to find time to start writing the next one.

"I've been in Europe a bit, where I have a strong fan base, and I'm also doing my favorite spots in the U.S.: The Tin Angel in Philly, Passim's in Cambridge, Jammin' Java. Thankfully, my mom and my mother-in-law have been able to babysit my daughter. The grandmothers have really taken charge this year!"

And as for her hometown and the birthplace of Country Music, as we know it?

"Yeah, I do Nashville in July," said Cantrell. "I sort of can't wait and I'm a little nervous. Traditional Country can be hit-and-miss in these Pop-Country days. But Kitty's music is so pure and timeless, I have feeling people will really like it. They just need to be re-introduced to it. Then, I think, it'll all make sense to everyone. Just like it did all those years ago."

Laura Cantrell will be at Jammin' Java for a 7 p.m. show on Saturday. Tickets are $14. For more information call 703-255-1566