Where We Live (Rounder, 2002)

Tanya Savory's life and her career as a performer has taken her from one side of this country to the other. Her latest is a testament to other people in all walks of life whose paths lead away from their birthplace and then not often back again.

Savory's second Rounder release doesn't try to pinpoint any single geographical location for her home longing songs. But rather she sings and writes about the feeling for home and the physical touchstones that seem to be consistent in everyone's hometown. By doing that, she makes these 11 songs accessible to nearly everyone who has left home for any reason.

Nowhere is this brought home more effectively than on "This Old Tree," a song on the surface about a large, singular, living hunk of wood. But what it really details is how strong a person's roots to their home can be and how there is very often a multitude of reasons to return. Savory is obviously a thoughtful and serious writer who spends time creating songs that will last in the listener's memory long beyond a trip up and down some chart. She is more pure folk than country often selecting classic folk instrumentation to provide a backdrop for her words and her passionate vocals. But her work is worth sampling and for certain tastes it will be very satisfying.