I love that you don't have to scratch very far into a musician's past before you strike Maritime. As soon as I bring up that I'm from N.B., most of the time the musician I'm talking to relates a story about how they are originally from, or their dad was, or when they were kids they would spend summers in, that kind of thing. And usually it's a pretty good story.

Kelly Prescott did that to me. Not only was her grandfather from Amherst, N.S., he's music royalty in the country. Brown formed and led The Family Brown, one of the biggest country groups in the 60's and beyond. Junos, CCMA's, all the major awards came their way over and over again, with the biggest hit being Raised On Country Music. Since it was a family group, his daughter Tracey was in the group, as was her husband, Randall Prescott. In the '90's, the group morphed into Prescott Brown, and along the way, Kelly made her appearance as well.

So, country, right? Umm...sometimes. Certainly you'll hear that when she's part of the hit stage show in Ottawa (where she lives), Grievous Angel: The Legend Of Gram Parsons, in which she takes the Emmy Lou Harris role. But on her own, she's a lot more blues, and R'n'B. She made an earlier album with her brother Kaylen under the name Prescott, but now goes solo with her own disc, I Leave You Dreaming. While she is a songwriter, contributing most of the numbers here, this is big, old school crooner stuff, and she has the pipes to pull it off. Heck, to own it. Sometimes you throw on a disc, and think somebody has a good or great voice. Rarely, and this is one of those times, you press play and go OH! I get it, you can REALLY sing. Prescott does it effortlessly, whether it's wailing on one, or just having fun. on the jokey Tin Pan Alley-styled number Busy Line, featuring MonkeyJunk's Steve Marriner on busy signal harmonica.

As we've discovered, family plays a major part in the Prescott legacy, and it continues with this third generation. Kelly's husband is Adam Puddington, who co-writes and co-producers the disc, handles lots of guitar and backing vocals, and I first ran into him when he was working with some Nova Scotia musicians, Dale Murray and Serge Samson. Figures. The two of them are a strong team (they also appear as the group The Claytones at times), and manage to take us from the old fun blues to some thick 70's-sounding soul (Thicker Skin) to smoking blues ballad Dark Cloud. Above it all though, is a voice you'll instantly love. I can think of a festival or two that should take a look and listen.