With her third album, "The Waltz", Carrie Elkin displays a power that grabs the audience and nearly forces them to listen. It's songwriting and a frighteningly powerful voice that are anything but middle of the road. Elkin jumps in with the high-octane hybrid "2 Hours 3 Beers and a Breakdown" and moves quickly through a brace of Western Swing charts that make the listener want to get up and dance with whatever, or whoever, is within arm's reach. Showing her true strength as a lyric poet on "The Waltz", Elkin comes around to her folk roots with "Arms" and the haunting "Berlin", each strong examples of songwriting and the range of emotion in her voice. Quite simply, Elkin's music involves your heart in her own stories. The Waltz displays rich production values akin to Patty Griffin's "Flaming Red" and, in fact, Griffin's work is a good comparison to that of Carrie Elkin. Less bare than Griffin's voice on "Living With Ghosts" and later albums, Elkin adds a richness of voice and harmonies that deepen the poetry. Elkin's song writing, vocal range and performance energy are comparable to, and indeed much like, those of k.d. lang's "Absolute Torch and Twang". Joining in on most of the cuts on The Waltz is Elkin's good friend Colin Brooks, an award-winning singer/songwriter in his own right and here the master of his steel and slide guitars. In addition to a number of very talented studio musicians, string arrangements on "Berlin" are by Ron Vermillion--renowned for his motion picture scores. The coup de grace is appearance by the legendary guitarist Brent Rowan, a staple on albums by Charley Pride, Clint Black, George Strait, Lorrie Morgan, Shania Twain and even Neil Diamond.