Kristi Rae, Various Means of Transportation

First off, a tidbit of information that may be useful to the reader: Kristi Rae is indeed female; it isn’t some clever name for an all-male band or anything. So all of you folks out there that are now rolling your eyes and thinking “OMG, not another chick band” to yourselves can move along and find something more testosterone-filled. I think that female singers and female bands get a bad rap, and in the case of Kristi Rae, it’s definitely unwarranted. Various Means of Transportation maybe a bit rough around the edges, but it’s ethereal and stirring at the same time, like some of the landscapes in her home state of Texas.

Kristi’s voice and supporting guitar make me think of time spent in front of campfires or afternoons lazing about underneath lush green trees; a beautiful soundtrack from happier times. It’s ironic, really, considering that the general theme of this CD is the living of a life that hasn’t been easy, a bumpy road that most people would never want to drive down. It gives you a certain innate sense of self, a quality that most people can’t put their finger on but find themselves quite drawn to at the same time.

Instead of relying on a loud rhythm section or screaming, piercing vocals, Various Means of Transportation conveys the message of growth and strength through its words, through the underlying conviction in her vocals, and through its simplicity. It’s hard to single out one song above any other, since the entire thing seems to stand as one piece. I’d liken it to trying to pick out just one chapter in your favorite book. It’s meant to be taken as a whole — one vision from start to finish — and that’s really the only way to experience it properly. Definitely folksy but never preachy or gimmicky, Kristi Rae sounds most like Poe (but acoustic and stripped down) to me, and that’s definitely a good thing.