Judging from her second album, young country singer Willow Avalon has kissed her fair share of frogs. She doesn’t let them off the hook. Rather, she stamps all over them with a vivacious ferocity that makes for entertaining songs. “You’re so full of shit that your britches don’t fit, and your mama is the only one that likes you,” she allows on “Work to Do”. And there’s plenty more where that came from.
Avalon’s father is the offbeat country singer Jim White, perhaps best-known to connoisseurs of Deep South arcana for the excellent documentary Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus. Maybe she inherited some of her lyrical pith from him, but she’s very much her own creature. Her music is meatier and more organic than Taylor Swift’s country pop, but she matches - even outdoes - that singer for he-done-me-wrong barbs at useless old boyfriends.
The album opens strong with the title track which isn’t about what you’re thinking (and she undoubtedly intended you to think) but is, instead, a twangy spaghetti western-sounding murder ballad. Avalon’s voice has an exaggerated Dolly Parton quaver, but its sweetness works well with her lethal intent.
The music runs the gamut from mariachi-flavoured to line-dance rock, the latter on the bad girl sass of “Hickest Woman” which features Texas band Midland. Jason Isbell is also on a song, but the best guest appearance is Kaitlin Butts on “Hypothetically Speaking”, wherein Avalon advises on how dispose of the body of a rubbish husband. “You’ll cut him into little pieces… and then you feed him to the 'gators," she suggests with Butts responding in mock-shock, “Those are nationally protected!”
Pink Pocket Pistol is mostly a riot, with an enjoyably snarky sense of girl power. There are less likeable songs, such as “Willy Won’t”, which takes the cutesiness too far, and the album's last quarter is weighted with less memorable ballads. It ends with one, “Georgia Mile”, where Avalon finally finds a decent fella. This is all well and good, but she was more fun when she was pissed off.
Below: watch the video for "Hypothetically Speaking" by Willow Avalon featuring Kaitlin Butts
