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Diamonds in the Dark on CD

Some folks make music because they want to - others do it because they have no choice. Sarah Borges clearly falls into the latter category, the kind of person whose DNA would read like a musical chart if you mapped it out on paper. Diamonds in the Dark, Borges' second album - and first for Sugar Hill - spells that out in lush detail, with every plaintive vocal twist and every rollicking guitar turn offering up proof that the Massachusetts native knows her way around American music's roots. After gathering the originals that form the core of Diamonds in the Dark, Borges reached far and wide for a smattering of equally intriguing covers. Those run the gamut from the aching 'False Eyelashes' (a lovely tune usually associated with Dolly Parton) to the girl-group-styled romp 'Stop and Think It Over' (composed by garage guru Greg Cartwright, who's best known as leader of the Memphis-based Reigning Sound). The icing on the cake is Borges' passionate reading of 'Come Back to Me' - an early classic from Los Angeles punk pioneers X, who she willingly identifies as 'probably my favorite band of all time.' While Borges readily acknowledges devouring songs from recordings made decades before she was born - Wanda Jackson, Bob Wills and vintage Merle Haggard have all been in heavy rotation on her stereo - she has always offset those influences with the music of the here-and-now.