STRUTHERS,NORA JANE - Champion (Sealed) (CD)

On her fourth album (and third with her stalwart band, The Party Line), Nora Jane Struthers walks listeners through the first year of her marriage to her bandmate, multi-instrumentalist Joe Overton. She points to every rock and buried tree root, and shows how mutual care and openness got the couple to the first summit on their path. Champion is beautifully structured, recalling the best work of Struthers' elders, like Rosanne Cash and Nanci Griffith.