Sarah Buxton "Space" (2008)

Album: Almost My Record EP
Label: Lyric Street Records


The title is a pun, an onomatopoeia. Space is what Sarah's selfish boyfriend in the song wants, and space is what the music's arrangement leaves plenty of. This is one of the clearest examples of mainstream country's 21st Century trend toward confessional singer-songwriting by young women: Taylor Swift, obviously, and Michelle Branch's country side project the Wreckers, but also Miranda Lambert, Sunny Sweeney, and so on.

Bitter about her guy complaining they're moving too fast and going too far, the woman in the song is entirely contemporary. Seemingly single and in her 20s, she could be from anywhere-big city, suburbia, small town, doesn't matter.

Though the frustrated sophistication in Buxton's tone certainly does not feel sheltered or provincial-“You need your own room, well how 'bout an island/I bet you can find one, on the dark side of the moon.”

Imagine a more vocally full-bodied, hallway-to-Stevie Nicks version of early Liz Phair-with that sexy Peppermint Petty burr at the edge of her voice intact-and you wouldn't be far off. “How does it feel not to need anyone,” Buxton taunts, channeling “Like A Rolling Stone.”

Yet this was a No.38 country hit, from a woman who Nashville sadly seems to find more marketable as a songwriter for male singers like Keith Urban, or a featured voice on tracks by male singers like David Nail.