Carrie Zaruba

Her debut album, Woman on a Mission, announces her arrival with crunchy power guitar, sizzling Country fiddle and lyrics that bounce between heartbreak and fist-pumping pride. Released on Go Time Records, produced by Kent Wells, who also co-wrote all six tracks with Zaruba, it showcases the Baltimore native’s ability to blend these disparate elements in a single song — even a single line — and make it completely believable.

Only part of this stems from the chops she cultivated as a jazz and opera vocal student at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts. She was molded more profoundly by her subsequent move to Nashville, the bar gigs she fronted and the writing skills she developed through working with Wells.

On ballads, Zaruba addresses a theme of hiding her sadness while putting on a brave front. When she assures us that she’ll be OK, in “Little Lies,” you feel the pain behind her bravado as well as the resolution that will in fact get her “out the door and on my way.” And all doubt is gone on the up-tempo rockers; the hip “tick, tick … boom” hook on the bridge in “Time Bomb” makes you want to run – straight to the dance floor..

IN HER OWN WORDS

MUSICAL HERO

“Van Morrison. Astral Weeks<