my own backyard, CTS 2005

My Own Backyard ANN KLEIN
By Pat Fitzgerald

New York guitarist Ann Klein has played with Ani DiFranco, Sara Lee, Natalie Imbruglia and Joan Osborne among others. On her fourth solo outing, she steps out to display her own considerable gifts as a singer and songwriter. Klein is that increasingly rare thing in a music landscape littered with ex-Disney divas and slumming big-screen wannabes: the real deal. Sure, Klein’s sublime slide-guitar playing is a thing of beauty, but the range of writing is equally impressive. My Own Back Yard is full of smart songs—like the haunting back-pages ballad “My Own Backyard” and the bittersweet “Dancing in the Rain”—infused with a grown-up girl’s hard-won experience. My Own Backyard seamlessly melds blues, country and folk influences, but one listen to her guitar on “You Can Be My Rainy Day” and you can tell she has a soul for rock. And she knows how to have fun too, as her sultry vocals on “Your Southern Charms” will attest. And when Klein conjures the ghost of St. Hank on “Hank Williams,” she sings with such passionate fervor you almost believe the old honky-tonker will pull up a stool next to her in that Manhattan dive and buy her a drink.

http://harpmagazine.com/articles/detail.cfm?article_id=3465

BOSTON GIRL GUIDE
Record Review By TC Krentz

Ann Klein’s fourth endeavor entitled “My Own Backyard” is a brilliant diversion from her first three incredible releases.
Although she maintains her talent as an outstanding rock performer, she certainly channels in a side of herself we may not have known was there; a country rock-guitarist-songwriter-singer. Even her voice transforms as if she has been soaking in the swamplands of America’s South for half her life.

This record provides proof that Ann Klein is truly a musician in every respectable sense; not just a girl with a guitar but a versatile talent that plays, writes and sings from the heart every time and executes any song penned with a well honed style.

Songs like Hank Williams flaunts her capacity to write an instant classic – whether it’s rock, folk or country. Dancing In The Rain fits nicely into this collection of ditties but could appear seamlessly on any of her prior releases.

What her fans will find most enjoyable is her signature remains constant on this record, as it has on all of them so far. Nice addition to the growing body of work of this NYC local favorite.

www.bostongirlguide.com/pages/reviews_annklein_mob.htm