By: David Schultz

There are times when analyzing the liner notes of an album can be slightly misleading. When you peer inside the cover of Timid Line, the latest EP by The Leaves, the names Bryan Dondero and Scott Tournet are going to leap out at you and scream Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. Although the two Nocturnals leave their imprint on the disc – Dondero produces and Tournet plays lap steel – it’s singer Aya Inoue that proves to be the true allure of the four song disc.

Inoue & The Leaves are part of the ever-bustling Burlington, Vermont music scene that gave birth to GP&TN and serves as home base for Ramble Dove, Mike Gordon’s honky-tonk collective that gave Inoue her first glimpse of National exposure. Anyone whose familiarity with Inoue comes from her Ramble Dove involvement will be mightily impressed with the range and depth she shows on Timid Line. You can hear an occasional honky-tonk twinge in some of her vocal inflections, especially on the title track, but otherwise Timid Line reveals Inoue to be a master at conveying strength and fragility, certainty and indecision with her delivery as well as her lyrics. It’s a trait borne by any successful singer-songwriters.

The songs on Timid Line seem torn from the inner pages of Inoue’s diary but The Leaves aren’t a vanity project for the feisty yet introspective singer. The music behind her, played by Matt Harpster (guitar), Corey Beard (bass) and Steve Sharon (percussion) with Charles Eller (keyboards) and Nocturnal Tournet (lap steel) also lending a hand, give Timid Line a gravitas along the lines of Gillian Welch or Townes Van Zandt. The EP shows what happens when you pair a talented singer-songwriter with a band that is entirely on the same page with the mood and tone she’s trying to convey. There’s a wonderful smoldering quality to “Yours Truly Charlie,” Harpster’s guitar solo greatly accentuates “Instead” and Tournet’s lap steel brings a mournful reflective quality to “Back.”

Timid Line accomplishes what every debut EP sets out to do: it’s long enough to give you a solid idea of what Inoue and The Leaves are capable of doing while leaving your appetite whetted for more.