And the Wheels Turn (Rural Rhythm, 2008)

The daughter of longtime Nashville songwriting stalwart Buddy Cannon, Melonie Cannon had led something of a checkered young adulthood by the time she put her musical DNA on display with a self-titled debut on the Skaggs Family label in 2004. With an all-acoustic Americana-type sound that leaned toward the bluegrass end of the scale, she won a lot of fans with a sweet, laid-back vocal style highlighted by intelligent arrangements of well-chosen material, including her dad's - and her own. Four years later, she's back with more of the same, but seems to have grown more confident and self-assured, drawing on her own past to interpret songs of love lost like I Call It Gone and Dark Shadows. Perhaps most emblematic of the disc - and her life - is her rendition of I've Seen Enough Of What's Behind Me, a Ronnie Bowman-Tammy Rogers tune that, as the title suggests, is all about not looking back. It's not all introspection and wistfulness, though. She has a lot of fun with one of her dad's signature tunes, Set 'Em Up Joe, a late-80s smash for Vern Gosdin, and if you can't imagine anyone other than Gosdin doing it justice, this will change your mind.