Daphne Lee Martin & Raise the Rent

Daphne Lee Martin has a nice voice and there are moments on her debut album, Dig and Be Dug, that perfectly envelop her jazzy falsetto in horns, keys and drums. But there are other times where she shoves in Mexican folk music or honky-tonk and the pairing comes off strange, as if somebody tried to match chocolate and meatballs. I like chocolate and I like meatballs, but they just don't go together. The record's opening track, "Rosalita," hits the listener on the head with its strange Mexi-folk, combined with a classical jazz cadence. But a track like "Saratoga Rain," for instance, features much more appropriate melodies. Daphne Lee Martin isn't a bad musician, but an argument could be made that she's spreading herself thin across too many musical styles. As if to prove my point, she even threw in a rap at the end of last track "Nostradamus."