Silver City (Blue Corn Music, 2005)

Boston's Sarah Borges has delivered quite the introduction with "Silver City." The dynamite debut produced by Paul Q. Kolderie (Morphine, Uncle Tupelo, Lemonheads) overflows with great songs - originals and a few choice covers - and Borges' passionate, heart-squeezing vocals.

Borges is capably backed by Rob Dulaney and Binky, both of whom also play in her boyfriend Jake Brennan's backing band the Confidence Men. Songs like "Same Old 45" and "Miss Mary" share a bit of the charging swagger that the Confidence Men often exude. Brennan provides acoustic guitar on a nicely done cover of Teenage Fanclub's "Mellow Doubt." But Borges' voice shines most on slower songs like the boozy "Ring in the Shape of a Heart" and "Pious Proud," one of two songs to feature noted Boston-area mandolinist Jimmy Ryan. Other standouts include the soulful "Think of What You've Done," "Daniel Lee," featuring the dueling pedal steel talents of Steve Malone and Mike Castellana, and "On the Corner" with smoking guitar work courtesy of Russell Chudnofsky. Also of note is Borges' rendition of the Tommy Dorsey-penned and Mahalia Jackson-popularized "I'm Going to Live the Life I Sing About in My Song."Borges gets all of it, as they say in baseball, and overall this is very much a home run.